Painted Dresser and Nursery Prints

I hope you are enjoying hearing about Mason's nursery. I'm really enjoying telling you about it and I could probably go on and on about the room because it's now a little nugget of my heart, but I think I'll wrap it up today with some final details.

Today's story is about this area of Mason's room:

It's home to my two favorite projects. The first is the set of prints that hang above the dresser.

Kerry correctly identified where these prints came from. They are originally from a Little Golden Book called "Corky."

The day Julianne and I were hitting up vintage shops and found the vintage rocker, we also came across a copy of this book for $5. Julianne is a black lab NUT - she and David have two black labs, Brady and Lucy.

Seeing this little book almost made Julianne cry in the store. So we obvi had to get it. And then I blew her mind by telling her that we could rip out the pages and frame them for the nursery. She loved the idea.

But I kept the best part secret...I didn't tell Julianne that I actually didn't have to rip out the pages. With a scanner and my Mad Photoshop Skills*, I was able to scan the pages we liked and then doctor them up to make them look fresh and match the colors of the room. I also took artistic license with the prose and changed names and sentence structure.

So I started with this scan:

And this is what it looked like after applying my MPS:

Brady got the role in the book because he came first. Lucy is his little sister and I thought that the first-born deserved the part.

Another example:

Pretty nifty, huh? I really, really loved working on this because we got a huge bang for our buck. Once my files were done, I had Staples color print them on 8.5x11 cardstock for a whopping $1/each. And I framed them in very inexpensive 8x10 light wood frames from AC Moore. The whole wall of prints was less than $20 and arguably one of the most sentimental things in the room.

And my other favorite project was definitely the dresser. Remember this $40 Craigslist find?

I loved that Julianne and I worked on this together - mainly because it helped me get it done but also because I think she enjoyed playing a part in creating something for the nursery.

We cleaned this guy, sanded him down a bit and then used oil-based primer to create a nice fresh layer. Then we painted it using a sample quart from Sherwin Williams, but I forget the color. Those sample quarts are such a good deal - $5 for SW's high-quality paint (it's my favorite). The quart was MORE than enough to paint this piece with two coats.

Then we painted in the detail with Folk Art craft paint and some small paintbrushes. I think the color was "Antique Gold" - it was a coppery-gold that I used to bring out the copper of the lamp (which I found at HomeGoods...I LOVE IT).

The project took time, but it was not difficult. And I was able to get exactly what I wanted for a great price.

That wraps up the tour of projects! If you have questions about a specific item's source or anything in the room, feel free to email me!

» Click Here to Leave a Comment «

 *Shout-out to my friend and fellow designer Crystal who also shared some of her Mad Photoshop Skills with me and helped make the prints extra awesome.