Gray Clouds and Sunshine: Owl-Themed Nursery: The Furniture Basics

Welcome back to our nursery makeover! If you missed the first installment called Getting Started, check it out!

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Next up on my list? Furniture.

We had an old birch crib that I wasn't loving. I really wanted white furniture and thought perhaps I could just repaint everything. But HOURS and HOURS and HOURS after sanding and painting and sanding and painting the changing table, I became disgusting with the thought of refinishing the crib.

And did I mention that I was 7 months pregnant when I did this? Ugh.

The changing table did turned out great though. I sanded, painted, and used a water-based sealant so that it won't "yellow" over time. Again, I used extra fabric from the quite to make a cover for the changing table (I modified this pattern from A Small Snippet) and threw on some storage bins we already had…and that happened to match perfectly, wahoo!

This made me happy, happy.

And yes my son is sitting in a stroller with an entire container of animal crackers :) Hey, don't judge! It kept him happy!

Onto the hated crib….I sold it!

Have you ever had a piece of furniture that you thought, "Hey, I can repaint that!" and then realize hours upon hours later that you should have just sold it and moved on. Yea, I knew that was our crib so I didn't even go there.

Thankfully I found a used white crib locally for a very decent price and my awesome hubby picked it up and put it together. Thanks honey!

Now, this room isn't huge…so I probably have one too many pieces of furniture in it. But our problem right now is that we're renting a home and this room's closet is FULL of storage bins. We are so limited on storage space and so the closet had to be sacrificed.

My husband had an old dresser that he inherited during college that was screaming to be used. I thought it would be perfect for baby's clothes :) And I am not into painting for hours on end (if you couldn't tell in my previous rants…) so here was my process:

1. Clean the surface and sand any rough or scratched up areas just until their smooth.

2. Paint the furniture. When the first coat is dry, add another.

3. After it's completely dried, coat with a water-based sealant so that it won't yellow.
(If you're painting a dark color, you could use an oil-based sealant since the yellowing won't show)

Done! See, I'm all about easy-peasy.

And if you look super close, you'll notice a LOT of imperfections with the paint-job and dresser. For me, I like it that way. My kids are going to run into it, ding it up, and put a lot of wear and tear on it. I would rather have an imperfect dresser that I don't mind getting scratches than a perfectly smooth paint job that shows every knick.