Refinished Baby Armoire

I love the idea of a child sized armoire in little girls room and hanging some of her clothes eventually at her level so she she can choose her outfits. This gives her some independence and that feels great to me. When looking for any type of furniture for a nursery it is very clear that everything is made and designed for the adults. Just about everything we found under the title "armoire" was something I would use in my room. 

I have seen various vintage smaller armoire type pieces over the years on blogs and Pinterest boards but they are few and far between and even rarer in the real world. I started a Pinterest board with ideas and inspiration for what we wanted to find. I was open to converting a dresser to an armoire if we could not find one that was perfect as is. 

We are lucky to have a really great Goodwill in our neighborhood. We stop in often and have found some great deals over the years. We stopped in one Saturday morning and could not believe our eyes when we found this piece in the furniture section.

Wowzers!!!! It was exactly what we were looking for! It was priced at only $29! Other than the hideous paint job it only was missing one of the drawer supports - an easy fix. 

I was so excited to get this project started. First we had to pick out a paint color. We settled on Pantone Pool Green. 

I grew up in a family that built homes, managed remodels and refinished all sorts of furniture. So it is something I love to do. That said, I don't do this everyday so I want to make sure I have all my ducks in a row so the project turns out the best way possible. 

These are the supplies I gathered for this furniture painting project:

• Sandpaper - usually 3 grits - rough, medium and ultra smooth
• Primer - I love Zinsser Bullseye 1-2-3 for all my painting projects
• Tack cloth to get up all sanding residue
• High quality paint brush
• Paint in flat finish - I find it goes on with the least amount of brush strokes
• Minwax Polyacrylic - I usullay use gloss for furniture
• Blue tape 
• Floor covering 

First I took the piece apart. Pulled out the drawers, took off the armoire door and the hardware to clean it of old paint residue. 

The armoire had a very thin coat of paint on it so it only required a small amount of hand sanding to get it smooth and ready for primer. Its important to take your time sanding and prepping your piece as every flaw will show through to the final coat of paint. 

Once my primer had a day to sit and dry very well I followed with 2 coats of the Pool Green paint. I used blue painters tape to tape off areas I did not want to get the gree paint on. Like the back side of the drawer fronts and the inside of the armoire door. 

Once the two coats of paint dry completely I inished the piece with 2 coats of polyacrylic. The reason I use polyacrylic over other types of top coats is because only polyacrylic does not turn yellow over time. I love the gloss on painted furniture and it leaves a nice stong finish for high use pieces. 

Mr. Ramon fixed the drawer support with a leftover piece of wood and we ordered these new white ceramic and gold trimmed knobs from Anthropologie. They made the piece just pop! I was so happy with the final results. It looks terrific in the room.

Baby Nursery Mood Board

Of all of the things on the to do list for the upcoming arrival of baby - designing the nursery was something I was really looking forward to doing with Mr Ramon. Flash forward to me crying in the paint isle at Lowe's with Mr Ramon as we try to agree on paint options. Whew - 2 design minded people, one who is full of pregnancy hormones trying to bring our ideas together and compromise.

We both brought a piece of inspiration to this project. Mr Ramon found a lovely gold Jonathan Adler elephant bank at JC Pennys. It was really cool to see the entire Happy Chic Jonathan Adler collection - such stylish pieces at affordable prices. This piece brought gold as an accent to our overall look.

My contribution was a four piece collection of prints with cute kittens and flowers. When I was little - 10 or so I saved a bunch of box tops or UPC's from something to order these adorable prints from the back of some magazine - maybe Readers Digest. I can't quite remember the details, but I know that I had to have them and they were precious to me. I have held on to these 4 prints in the original packaging I received them in for at least 20 years. They now will have the chance to be framed and hang on the nursery wall.

We decided to keep the paint neutral and go entirely white. To add a graphic element Mr Ramon will be painting a diamond and heart motif on some of the walls. A pop of color will be added to the room in the form of a vintage child's armoire I am repainting Pantone Pool Green.

We wanted the room to feel clean and crisp but also add in some warmer accents with pops of color and texture. Below is our mood board that is guiding us as we move forward with the actual creation of the room. Also notice there is no crib on our mood board. We will be building this nursery to embrace some Montessori practices and will instead of a crib have a floor bed. I am exited to share these parts of our nursery with you very soon.

And If you can't tell by the kitten print or gold hearts - we are expecting a little girl!! We could not be happier!