Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Nursery

I have been planning to make nursery items out of junk for months. Here are a few of the initial finished projects.
First of all...a dresser.

My parents had this old definitely used dresser no one was using. So I luckily found at Home Depot, a can of "oops paint". Oops paint is usually near the paint mixing counter and they are $5/gallon, $1/qt of different kinds and colors. I have a problem with buying paint, so every time I find myself in Home Depot I check out the oops paint. This brick red paint is for decks & floors, so perfect for a dresser to be resistant to scuffs. I took off the hardware and did lightly sand the dresser before painting it.
Next, little name blocks. As a baby gift, someone have us these blocks with our baby's initials. I painted them from natural wood to match the rest of the baby blocks I've made.

Lastly, I really wanted a lamp. It surprises me how expensive lamps can be, and it's fun to make one out of junk so I found this round green beauty at the local thrift store for $3.
I spray painted it white to get a clean canvas and then painted a simple scene with giraffes. The nursery theme is animals I guess, and my mom made a quilt and in it there was this reddish giraffe print that I LOVE. So it became the inspiration for a lot of projects.
It was a challenge to paint on such a spherical shape because I was worried if I made the giraffes too tall, or too high, all their heads would converge at the top and at the bottom.



After painting it, I was sealing it with an aerosol matte finish, and on the front of the lamp, it bubbled up and pulled the paint away. SO FRUSTRATING! I and used a straight razor to cut out the bubbled paint and re-painted the area. When I sealed it for the last time, I was more careful about the thickness of the spray.


For the lampshade, I found a square, small one for $7 at Target. Using the fabric that I guess has become the theme of the room, I cut strips and hot glued them 1" thick on the top and bottom of the lamp shade.

FINISHED LAMP
Above the dresser is the painting from the book, My Father's Dragon I did a while ago

7 comments:

  1. You amaze me! I'm happy to see the giraffe picture frame I passed on to you finally getting some use. I love the lamp! The letters turned out really cute! I love your mom's brilliant idea of dying the zebra fabric to make the color match

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  2. I AM SO IMPRESSED!! Can I hire you to do my kids' nursery?

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  3. haha I love the letters to Netty from her BFF's on the dresser...and I agree "Heather is Nice"!

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  4. that lamp is sooo cute and creative! I would of never thought of that! It would of gone straight to the DI!

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  5. wow, that's amazing! You've done such a good job...the Lamp is adorable!

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  6. Can you come decorate my kids room? This looks awesome. RJ is a lucky little guy.

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  7. Wow, Jessica, you are amazing! I wish I had an eye for things like that! Super cute!

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