ORC Week 3: Furniture Repurposed

It's week three already!

In my two girls' rooms, we've figured out who's moving where, chosen paint colors and fabrics, and now there is some furniture to figure out.

Since the floor plans aren't changing, many items are staying put.

The main thing I needed to source was a little desk for Clio's room--I was thinking something like this.  The plan was to keep the existing desk in Eleri's room.  But, when I was talking to the girls about desks, they threw me a curveball.

I have the sweetest little desk in the entryway.

photos by Melissa Oholendt

It was my mom's, and I spent, oh, maybe a YEAR stripping it to bring it back to its natural state.  I love the scale and the little drawers and the two levels of surfaces.

Guess what?  So do the girls.  Both of them.  It was in their shared room for a while (which I actually forgot until going back to those old posts), and they each told me independently that they wanted this desk in their new room.

As luck would have it, there are two of them!  My mom, one of her sisters, and one of her cousins all had them growing up.  One seems to have gone missing, but one was at my brothers house in its original condition (i.e. ugly brown paint.)  He quickly agreed that we could "borrow it" and fix it up.

There are two of these chairs, too.  My husband has been dying to try milk paint, so we headed off to Carver Junk Company to check out the finish samples for Miss Mustard Seed's milk paint.  While I love the bare pine finish of the one desk, a) it's just not practical for a 9 year old who will use it regularly and b) there was no way I was stripping the other desk.

We decided to have the desks match each other, and I loved this warm ivory.




Eleri's chair will be green and Clio's will be yellow--I liked the idea of the same treatment on both sets, but with a little bit of individuality thrown in.

Placement for Clio's desk was easy--it will go back where it was, between the beds.  And she will get the little shelf that sits on top (see below, in process).

Turns out that this little desk is also the perfect size for the niche in Eleri's room where the dresser was.

Which.... means she needs a different dresser.  Dominoes, people.  That tallboy is simply too tall for the new dresser spot, which is what you see looking in to her room from the hallway.  Since we just got a new dresser in our master bedroom, our two old small black dressers were up for grabs.

I remembered that I had some bone flower knobs that I bought at Anthropologie 15 years ago, but they were in rough shape, so I set to work gluing them beck together as needed, and was inspired to paint the dresser in a lilac faux-inlay scenario, like Jenny did at Little Green Notebook.

 Here's a peek at the progress:

There's a downside to working quickly:  I painted the dresser in the room and knocked over a wet drawer-- with my butt!  Of course I had already hung the curtain panels, with new pom pom trim already sewn on, and there is no way that enamel paint is coming out.

Sigh.

Still, though: great progress, and feeling great about re-using so many things.  (If there's a lesson here, it is that my design hoarder tendencies are being majorly justified!)

Check out the 20 official ORC designers' progress this week, here.

And then check out the 100+ designers and bloggers who, like me, are linking up at Calling it Home!

Next week: all the textile projects.  My favorite.