Eyes Without A Face

I recently worked on a project for my very good friend Darla, LOVE her!  It was a piece that she had been wanting to refinish for quite some time.  I would like to believe that after watching me work on project after project, I inspired her to finally work on one of her own.  We had such a great time working together and the anticipation of the end result was overwhelming.  I loved seeing her like this...one thing you need to know is though we are like sisters, we are VERY different.  She is most definitely a girly girl, you know like perfect hair and makeup and a different and fabulous outfit everyday kinda girl.  OK...so that's totally not me, I'm always in DIY gear, you know, sweats and t-shirts with remnants of paint, stain, etc.  Funny story....the day we decided to start the project, I sent her a  text telling her to put on crappy clothes so we can get to work and she texts back, "I don't have any crappy clothes."  I found that hilarious since the majority of my wardrobe is just that.

Anyway, let's talk bout this project.  She found it in the warehouse at her job, neglected and unwanted.  It used to be an old eyeglass case and she wanted to turn it into a jewelry armoire...perfect!  I could see her vision and wanted to help her make it happen.  So one day after work, we begun the transformation, crappy clothes and all.

Isn't this a great piece?  I'm actually a wee bit green with envy over it....good thing I love this girl!  So here we go with the transformation.  We worked together step by step so that she could see just how you would tackle a project like this.  After removing the hardware from the drawers and glass door we began the stripping process.  Being the great friend that I am, I made sure Darla got her hands dirty. :-)  Notice how neatly she wiped off the stripper gunk on the pink towel...ha ha...she's too damn cute!

Now that the worst part is over, it was time to clean it up, sand, and prepare for the staining process.  Somewhere along the way, Darla decided that she wanted the drawers to stand out in some way.  She wanted them to resemble the drawers from Beloved's nightstand project, which you can see here.  In order to achieve this look we would have to veneer the drawers, so a trip to my second home was our next mission.  This was a first for me...I've never used veneer before on any of my projects.  I must admit, I was a little nervous, not sure how this well such a product would work.  Most of my stress was due to the fact that I was working on this for someone else and did not want to screw anything up.  So I dove in, head first, anxious to see what would come of this.  I traced the face of the drawers onto the back of the veneer.

Then I began cutting, using my sturdy upholstery shears.

Now it was time to lay the veneer on the drawers and start ironing.

OK...so that worked pretty well.  Next step, rolling out any air bubbles that might be present.  Please note...this is probably the only reason I will EVER have for using my rolling pin!  Unless my  Mother intervenes and forces me to learn to bake.

Once all eight drawers were finished, they needed to be trimmed down.  I had bought this handy, dandy tool to accomplish this with ease...not so handy after all.  It worked pretty good at first but then soon became problematic.  Worried that I was gonna ruin the drawers, I decided to ditch that crappy tool and instead sand down the edges.

A few more final steps and this project would be finished.  Light sanding and staining the veneer, applying a few coats of polyurethane on the entire piece, lining the drawers and back wall with felt, and then installing the original hardware and Tah Da!

I hope you love this one as much as we do!  As soon as we get this all set up at her house, displaying all her jewelry, I will post more pics.  Until then, ENJOY! :-)


This week I will be partying with the following...

Posted by Marissa @ Frugal to Fab