ta-da

I have to admit, it looks good in the picture. As I'd hoped. But if you detected a note of false triumph in the title of this post, it's because the blue tape let me down. I know! When I peeled it off, I found that primer had seeped under the edges, blurring the entire design. Gaah! J says it probably happened because the wood was too porous and I shouldn't retract my blue-tape-is-the-bomb post without sufficient evidence. Anyway, several tedious hours with a razor scraper (and several blades) later, I'm calling it done. Embracing, again, wabi, the beauty of imperfection. Reminding myself that it is destined for a child's room, after all, not a gallery.

Where did I get the inspiration? (Kirsten wants to know.) Well, unlike most of my craft projects, which are adapted, if not outright copied, from others, this one came all from my own head. The dresser was rescued from the trash, so it wasn't in very good condition.


Here's a picture I took of the top of the dresser when I was working on it because I couldn't bear to obliterate that decal without any documentation. If there had been more of it, I'd have tried to preserve it in some way.

Anyway, after scraping a layer of ancient, alligatored varnish from the whole thing, I discovered a veneer of beautiful wood on the drawers, but it was too dinged up to look good unfinished. I came up with the idea of the tree to let a little of the wood veneer show through a coat of paint.



See, it's really all right in the end. Even close up. That fabric on top will be the curtains for the room. I also painted a little bookcase headboard the same shade of pale green. It's not much to see right now, but I promise I'll include it on the virtual tour when, eventually, Iris' big-girl room is done.