total transformation

Husband and I have economically decided rather than putting money into new bedroom furniture while we're still living in an apartment, we'll renovate what we have to better suit our needs.

Exhibit A: Our dresser. A hand-me-down from my childhood.

Confession: I'm a baddd blogger. I totally forgot to take a before photo! Oopsie! Lets just say it had that lovely, shiny faux wood exterior that most pressed wood pieces had back in the early '90s. 

This dresser belonged to my parents more than 15 years ago and I've been carting it around since I moved out of residence.

And not to toot our own horns here ... ok, maybe a little ... these renovations were done in the middle of our living room, thanks to a plastic drop cloth and a day warm enough to keep the patio doors wide open.

After a lot of sanding, priming, two coats of paint and some sassy new Lee Valley antique brass cup pulls — voila:

For those of you who like to know these things, like me, the paint colour is Pebble Mosaic by Glidden.

Exhibit B: Our headboard

Also a cart-away from my younger days, this baby has adorned my bed for about 20 years and counting.

And the after:

Then we'd really caught the painting bug. I remembered a little end table that I'd packed away for a rainy day, and it got a splash of Pebble Mosaic, too:

The lesson here: It doesn't have to be new, to be new to you. In one day and for about $60 (with all the new hardware), we've transformed our hand-me-downs into a matching set. Success!