French Provincial Dresser Make Over

French Provincial has always caught my eye. Especially in white. We had bought a small dresser for Collette's room as the first addition to her nursery. A year later I decided I wanted a larger dresser with a matching nightstand. So I found and bought both off of craigslist in great shape. They are slightly different but with the same hardware and paint it will look matching!

 

 

You see many variations of these dressers on Pinterest. Most are just painted but still have the old hardware. I love the shape of the dresser and nightstand but have never been fond of the hardware. Luckily I have access to a professional painter, I told him that I wanted a high gloss white and all the holes from the original hardware filled in so I could install new. He did a great job. The dresser looked amazing, and completely transformed.

 

This is the hardware I had picked out before even starting the dresser. I hope it looks as good as I pictured it.

 

The pulls were easy to find. I thought I would use these on the 6 drawers on the dresser and the 2 drawers on the nightstand. After receiving them, they looked great for the dresser but way too large for the nightstand. So I decided to do the same knobs as I did on the dresser for the nightstand.

 

  Here is the finished project. Ah, I love this big dresser. It works great for a changing table and after that phase it will still be a staple piece in Collette's room for many years to come. The nightstand matches great and looks very dainty/girly in her room. The dresser also came with a mirror so we had it painted too but are storing it until we need it. The white gloss paint and new hardware gave this furniture a new life.

 

Collette's Birthday Party

Collettes Winter ONE-derland party was so much fun. My mom and I had a blast decorating the night before and we had lots of Christmas decor that fit right in.

 

Collette's baby book served as the guest book. It's a picture book you can fully customize. I found Mixbook recently and have already made 3 different picture books and a calendar! It's basically digital scrapbooking and every one has come out cuter than the last, as I get more familiar with the capabilities. You Add in your own text including all baby book must haves (1st tooth, words, ect.). I did her pictures in chronological order and I left the last page blank so guests were able to write her a sweet happy birthday note to read when she's older. It was made from the website Mixbook,I usually start a project and order when they have a 50% off sale which is often!   

 

 

 

The favor ornaments were hung on a tree I had as a Christmas decoration and the jar favors lined up on the same table. The tutorial for these is here.

 

The cake was done at a nearby bakery called Pila's Pantry, and tasted great! The cake topper was ordered off of Etsy from ModernBlooms. I love how the topper came out, and its a great keepsake.

 

The ONE banner was also ordered on Etsy from LaCremeBoutique. Initially I had planned on hanging it on Collette's highchair but since it was too big, we used it as a backdrop.

 

 

Collette's onsie said Birthday girl on a pink "sash", I wish I had a better picture of it! From Madibethcreations.

 

 

Collette, to my surprise didn't even try to take her hat off ! The cake was a perfect distraction. Her hat was so cute, and just the right proportion for her head. After searching for a while and looking over many Etsy shops I finally found it on Kutie Bow Tuties. I told you I had an Etsy obsession:)  

Collette's First Birthday - Party Favors

Since Collette's birthday falls in December I thought it would be cute to do party favors in theme of the season. 2 years ago Anthropologie came out with mason jar "snow globes" and my mom and I made our own and they came out great. So after seeing some pink bottle brush trees on Etsy I had my inspiration. 

I found some little jars online at TomKat Studio, ordered the trees from Loveitshabby on Etsy and made a stop at Michaels. Initially I thought we would just do the jars but after recalculating our guest list a final time I came up 8 favors short. So while at michaels I found these empty glass ornaments and thought it would be perfect! My mom came over to help, we thought we'd just start them and ended up getting them all done in no time.

All you need is some "snow" glitter. Martha Stewarts is more expensive but after using it I thougt the bigger glitter flakes and color were prettier. I used a little jewel it glue for adhering the trees to the glass ornaments and jars, some ribbon/twine or any decorative touch you'd like! I also used a little jewel charm tied to the ribbon for some extra sparkle. The needle nose pliers were used because the trees.. even being only 3" were a little too big for the jars. They fit but it looked squashed so we used the pliers to separate them from the wood base, cut the trees wire a little bit and then reattached them to the wood base. It was an easy fix. The trees fit much better after. 

The trees were a little tricky getting into the ornaments. The wood base barely fit through the glass opening. First I straightened the tree, I applied the glue to the wood base, then carefully pushed the base through the opening, I used the pliers to lower the tree into the ornament and place on the bottom. I pressed on the tree until the glue squished out around the wood base and then in went the glitter. I used 2 bottles of glitter for 20 favors but I like a full look, you could get away with using less.

They turned out so cute. I made little tags and attached them to give the favors a personalized touch. I actually ended up "favoring" ... (too cheesy? Lol) the ornaments, the more I thought about it the more I liked them. Every year when we decorate our tree we will be reminded of Collette's first birthday. That year filled with firsts for all of us and the fun party where family and friends celebrated together.I hope it's the same for our guests.

Collette's Room

Having a girl is such fun, I loved decorating her room. I love grays at the moment and most of the walls in our home are gray so it kept with the scheme. I knew I wanted a chandelier for her room but couldn't afford most of them! My mom and I decided to head to Ikea and I finally found a chandelier in my price range! It was $99 and super cute. Ikea SODER chandelier. I was worried about the light output, but once we had it installed it was definitely bright enough.

 

 

We picked up the pink crystal additions at the Rosebowl Swapmeet for $2 a piece. The shelves are from Ikea, the crib is from Potterybarn as well as the bedding for it.

 

 

Marie decal from Disney's Aristocats Movie is from Ebay. I'm a sucker for kitties.

 

 

We love the video monitor. I can't imagine life without it. It's from BabiesRus. The bunny bookends are from restoration hardware. Almost everything else is from TJ max.

 

The eterge is from Ikea, I just spray painted it gold. We replaced the top and bottom with glass and mirror.

 

The dresser we bought off of craigslist. It was the first purchase for the babies room and an exact copy of the one I had when I was little (wish I would of kept it). The ottoman I also found on craigslist and had it reupholstered in this sweet girly fabric. I spray painted the C above her crib white and used some of the fabric to match.

 

 

The tree decal was the last addition to her room and I love the way it turned out. I ordered it from Etsy from Thewhitetreestore. The decal comes in long strips and you cut the branches into sections and apply one at a time. It sounds like a long process but it was done in about and hour, maybe an hour and a half.

 

 

 My mom came over to help. She is very handy, and knowledgeable on many DIY projects. I can always count on her help and I know the project will turn out great.  Its so nice to have a project be fun instead of work.

We started at the base and worked our way up.

 

 

This decal came with almost all the tools we needed.

We did use our laser level to make sure it started off straight. Then we applied the decal and used the tool it came with to make sure its adhered to the wall, then peeled the see-through layer off. A few of the leaves wanted to come up with the paper. They give you extra leaves so we replaced a couple, everything else, as long as you move slow, adhered perfectly.

 

 

The baby is never far from our projects.

 

 

 

We had to cut some of the decal since I had a doorway. We also off set the decal a little. On the left we let it wrap around on the next wall. We were going to cut it to match the right side but liked the way it looked!

 

 

Easy project that gives great detail to her room!

 

 

My husband asked after the decal if Collette's room was done now ...that's a good question. I can't say because i'm always rearranging things, finding new things I like better so lets just say done for now.

 

To be continued...perhaps.