More than a Dresser

A few weeks ago I found the most amazing Navy Blue dresser online.  I HAD to have it, even though the reality is that I didn't need it (I have drawers in my walk in) but it was stunning.  It will be a perfect accent!

Then I saw the price tag....$1200.  I'm embarrassed to admit that for more than a moment I considered it.  I want so badly for my bedroom to be my sanctuary, but in the long run I knew it was not a smart move.  Not to be defeated, I decided to try and refinish a dresser.....my Ikea dresser.  The thing is, the Ikea stuff is that....almost laminate.  Matt and I had refinished stuff in the past, but he had always done the "power tools" stuff.  

So......I started googling and Youtubing.  Basically, I did 21st century research. I found that there's this great primer product for Ikea stuff (that frankly ended up not being AS great as they said).  In conjunction with this, I decided to paint Matt's Uncle Jimmy's childhood dresser for Kate.  

Getting Kate's dresser down was.......wow.  Don't ask but I'll just say I had to slinky it.  And I got to work!  

I painted it with the primer twice, then white.  Kate wanted purple polka dots but only on her PJ drawer, so I broke out the Cricut and polka dots were made.

The Ikea dresser was a bit more.....cumbersome.  I used the primer and then painted it with this special blue color mineral paint I bought.  It dried and I put on polyurethane.but I didn't like the streak marks.  No biggie, I'd just buff it and fix it......except the moment I tried to buff it with the power sander and huge sheets of the paint came off.  Under the black original paint looked as if no one had touched it.  

Luckily I had only done the drawers, but it still meant I had to take off everything, and then I had to sand it/scuff it from there.  

At this point, I realized I wouldn't have enough of the paint and I wasn't about to order more (it took weeks to get anyway).  I decided to just go with basic behr paint which was smart.  Once it was painted, I put a layer of Poly but when it dried I didn't think it was shiny enough, so I bought more of a "glass" poly.  I put that on last night, but this morning I decided I didn't like the streaks you could see so one more coat with a roller brush (borrowed from a neighbor) and VOILA!! 

I'm thrilled with how it turned out, but the thing that really struck me is what I learned.  Here's the thing......in my life I don't think people (men) really ever said that I couldn't do something, but I realize now that what they did was almost more detrimental.  Throughout my life, men in my life have taken care of things for me--driving, power tools, whatever--and though it seems so chivalrous, what it was saying to me  as a bi-product was that I wasn't capable.  Over time, I started to believe it and when I would want to try something, I certainly didn't want to try it in front of them for fear of screwing it up.  

I don't exactly know what actionable item I take away from this-I still think chivalry is amazing-but  I also want to be sure that I'm able to bust out of this mentality and prevent it from trickling down to my girls. But at least for now, recognition is a step in the right direction.