Gracie's Big Girl Room {progress}

WARNING!! Long post ahead!!

Not sure why, but I seem to get the most motivated when the weather outside is horrible and there's nothing to do but to stay in doors!! I guess it's just my way of dealing with cabin fever!!

It has been a long winter and I've been busy with all kinds of projects. Just recently I shared my plans for Gracie's room make-over. If you missed it you can read all about it and see before pictures of the space here.

I have since painted the room pink. Yikes, I know what your thinking, but believe me it is the slightest hint of pink and you will see that it almost looks white! It's actually perfect for the vintage look I'm going for in this space! I also picked up an amazing vintage dresser I found on Craig's List. I have had the best luck with Craig's List. The key is to check every single day, as often as you can for what your looking for and better yet, you can set alerts through Craig's List for exactly what your looking for so you don't miss out! This particular dresser was super dirty and the white layers of paint where thick. Once again, I failed to take a proper before picture. All I can tell you is that it was painted white and stained a very dark cherry stain under the white paint. I stripped the paint with Citristip which I found at my local Home Depot. This stuff is amazing!! The primary reason I chose this brand was because I could use it indoors! It surprisingly has a very nice citrus sent to it so it really worked out great, but I do have to admit it was the single messiest project I have ever tackled!! WARNING: Messy, Messy, Messy!!! After stripping and cleaning up a huge mess I began sanding. In doors? Yup. In doors. I did this all in our basement in an small confined area. I had already put tarps down before I started the paint stripping process, so that helped to. Most importantly, I wore a mask and cleaned the filter to my mouse sander very often. This process took me at least three weeks. Sanding is major job and I knew that I wanted to sand all the way down to the natural wood so it was best to take my time and do it when I could. I was in no rush and I knew that it would be so worth it!!

Here is the one and only "before" photo I have.



All and all it was a really tough project but in the end it was so worth it!!

Would I do it again?? Absolutely, but I think next time I will tackle a project like this outdoors!!

Here is the dresser after the sanding was complete and with it's new knobs!!

Because I sanded the dresser to the natural wood I had to seal it, so I used a few layers of lime wax and then I finished it off with a layer of Annie Sloan Clear Wax. The knobs are from Hobby Lobby. They were pink but I painted them in the mint green color I used for Gracie's night stand. It's also the same paint color I used on the inside of the dresser drawers!!

I snagged the adorable nightstand below from my Grandfathers house! It's covered in a dark stain so I just painted over it and distressed!! I adore this mint green color. It's called Winter Fresh by Behr. Highly appropriate I must say!! It's the perfect vintage green color. My daughter actually picked it out from the three paint swatches I had her choose from. Girl after my own heart!! Here is the completed nightstand.

Super cute right?? I wasn't fond of the brass pull originally on this piece, so I used this adorable glass knob I picked up from Home Depot for another project. It really gave it the perfect touch!!

Now, I originally wanted a nice gold mirror for over the dresser, but because the walls are slanted it makes it really hard to find the perfect sized mirror. Also, Gracie is still not that tall and probably couldn't see herself in the mirror anyway, so when I saw this vintage shaving mirror on an antique tag sale group on Facebook, I decided to snag it and make it into a little vanity mirror that would double as a jewelry box!!

Here is what it looked like before.

Gorgeous as is, but a bit to masculine for a little girls space. So I decided to paint and distress it with some Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Pure White.

Now this my favorite piece in the room right now and Gracie adores it!

She hangs her necklaces on the sides of the mirror and puts all her favorite rings and bracelets in the little drawer. The knobs actually came from her old Pottery Barn jewelry box....and they are the perfect size!

Progress with this space is slow due to my day job and the priorities of being a mom, but I did have a chance to put together Gracie's gallery wall. If you know anything about me, you know how I adore me some gallery walls!! This to me was so important for this room and I wanted it to reflect the new space so I added some new inexpensive items as well as items from the old gallery wall. I found a great antique frame on Craig's List and I pulled out an old canvas Gracie had painted that really ties everything together. Here is what it looked like before I started nailing.



Please excuse the grainy photos, but I've been using my cell phone to capture these candid moments!!

And here is what the gallery wall looks like now...

As you can tell I have a little heart theme going here.

This picture is truly what I envisioned when I first began piecing together this room update. The two major pieces that brought this entire room makeover to life are dresser and the "love" sign. Mite sound pretty silly to makeover an entire room based on a dresser and sign, but this is how creativity begins. I knew when I purchaed that sign over a year ago that there was no way it would work in this space, not with light blue walls and hot pink accents all over, but I adored it and figured I'd keep it until I found the proper place for it.... And when I completed the dresser I knew immediately that the walls would have to be painted. Pink walls were not part of the plan, but that's just how it all evolved.... Some designers start with fabric or wallpaper to begin pulling a room together... I simply use what I love....

Anytime your making over a room you have to begin somewhere. Begin with what you love and move forward from there. I can assure you it will be worth it. It probably won't come together in a week or month, or maybe not even in six months, but eventually you will have that space that you envisioned and it will be well worth the wait!!

Linking up with:

Miss Mustard Seed

Craftberry Bush

Ginger Snap Crafts

Savvy Southern Style

Shine Your Light