Necessity.

Sssooo when Aaron and I were first married, we were living in a little townhouse.  Space was limited but we were by no means cramped.  It was a perfect fit....until my Bridal Shower.  My once organized kitchen was overflowing with new dishes, shiny glassware and fancy new appliances-what a blessing!   Between donations and careful organizing we made room for almost everything except for our placemats, table cloths, cloth napkins, antique silverware and champagne flutes.  What to do, what to do??

We considered buying those plastic Rubbermaid containers with the pullout drawers but not only are they ugly, for all the items we needed to store it would cost way more than I am willing to spend on plastic furniture.  Our wedding was still around the corner, so spending any extra money on a brand new hutch or buffet was out of the question.  We went looking for something at the local surplus store, knowing it was probably a shot in the dark.  We didn't find a hutch or a buffet, but there was an old dresser made of solid wood  priced at $29. 

I pointed the dresser out to Aaron, who as usual thought I was crazy but humored me nonetheless.  It was in rough condition with a lot of dated features - bad handles, ugly cutouts and cracked veneers on the sides.  We decided that we would rather put a little money and work into this dresser instead of buying Rubbermaid containers.

Off to Lowe's we went and picked up wainscoting (we had them cut the pieces to size at Lowes), trim pieces, primer, paint and looked at drawer pulls.  The dresser needed 16 pulls, and I was not willing to spend $4 a piece on any of the handles, so we headed to the Restore.  At the ReStore, they had the perfect simple bronze handles for $1 a piece.  I think I had to buy two additional matching pulls at Lowes but it was still a great deal!

Aaron had some work to do making a few drawers a little more sturdy, and I also rearranged the drawers for a more interesting look.  Aaron put trim around the bottom of the dresser to cover up an ugly cutout...this was challenging as Aaron only had a handsaw to cut the angles, but he made it work...with the help of spackle.  :)  Then we put the wainscoting over the cracking veneers, and primed/painted the whole thing.  The pulls were installed and we shined it up with pledge and the "ugly duckling dresser" was our new buffet.  When our wedding came, I loaded it with even more new kitchen gadgets, cook books and linens.  It stored more than we expected and we received many compliments. 

 This was our first project together, the one that started it all!  

 I wish I had a better picture, this is only the top half.  

This year at spring cleaning, I removed the hardware and our  buffet found its way to the curb, I have wished 100 times since then that I would have held onto it and pieced it out for new projects...que sera sera.

It makes me happy to think that something we did out of necessity has become a hobby that we LOVE.  When we have our "what would we do if we won the lottery" conversations, opening a business where we would repurpose and design furniture and home decor is always at the top of our list....right behind buying a giant old house and fixing it up in our own funky style.


Do you have any furniture you have bought out of necessity that isn't the most attractive?  Junk laying around your garage?  Something you've inherited that isn't your style?  Have you ever thought of fixing it up?  Try it!  Or if you're not the brave or handy type, send me a picture and we will see what we can do.  You might be surprised!

Noelle