restoration HARDware

Over the past few months I've been reading a lot of DIY blogs, for clothing, like I Spy DIY, and for home furnishings, like articles featured on Design*Sponge. So in preparation for my move to Denver I decided to restore my great-grandparent's bedroom set. Sadly the dresser that goes with the original set is destroyed beyond any repair I could do myself but my mom had a Pottery Barn dresser she was going to give me so I decided to match the color to it. From reading all of these blogs, however, I was vastly mistaken because I thought that fixing this bedroom set would be a cinch... not the case. This furniture had ugly brown paint, a thick layer of varnish, and about 25 years of dust/dirt/general nastiness on it's exterior. And to top it off it is a spindle-design bed so in order to get the many layers of gunk off I had to sand around each spindle. I never ever want to see sandpaper again. Needless to say, the project I assumed would take a few days, took several weeks, but I'm pretty sure it paid off. I love the way the pieces turned out, and I think it will be really special to have heirloom pieces like this in my home in Denver and in any future homes I live in.

And by the way, I'll be beginning my move to Denver on Friday! Pictures of the great McKinney family Western adventure/roadtrip to come :)

My great-grandparents John and Jenny Ballard

Here are the before and after pictures....