Things are finally coming together in the nursery – I don’t have any more bits to buy or scavenge (much to Matt’s relief) and all furniture is in position and fits! Amongst the cot, the change table, the rocker, the bed we wanted to keep in what was our guest bedroom, I needed storage for our little one’s things. This house, like every single farmhouse we’ve lived in before, has no wardrobes. Enter: the Queen Anne drawers.
These drawers once upon a time were in my parents bedroom in their original white colour, then when I was a teenager I painted them bright purple to go in my newly painted purple and yellow bedroom. Of course?! Yikes! Since then they’ve bounced around from my mum’s house to our numerous houses, lived mostly in our guest bedroom storing an assortment of board games, linen, photo albums, stuff! I always had in the back of my mind that they would end up in our one-day-baby’s nursery. They are solid, have a nice shape to them with their little Queen Anne legs, and I’ve always liked the white and gold handles (which thank goodness I didn’t touch in my paint-the-world-purple phase!)
A few weeks ago I got stuck into sanding all that thick, glossy purple paint off. End of an era! Using Matt’s trusty sander I got covered head to toe in purple dust, and was so buggered afterwards with sore arms for the next day! But, the strip back was complete. I wasn’t overly fussy, under the purple I found the original white I remembered from my childhood, then in places the bare timber. As long as the surface was smooth I was fairly happy.
A quick wipe down and dust off and I got stuck into my paint samples – who knew that mint wasn’t mint?! The nursery, if you don’t remember from my original musings, is mostly whites and neutral tones with splashes of minty pastel green. I did consider reverting back to the original white of the drawers, but decided that was just too safe and to go out on a limb with the mint. Will I tire of the mint and re-paint these sometime? Most likely. For now though, my mint obsession won out.
I finally decided on Dulux’s ‘Pastel Mint’ after discounting others which were too ‘sage mint’ or too ‘blue mint’ or not minty enough. I was a bit worried that Pastel Mint might be a bit ‘sweet-sickly’ (technical term) en masse, but I bit the bullet and got to painting! That’s the beauty of painting furniture: the worst that could happen was I didn’t like it and I painted over it.
Two coats later I popped the drawers back in, handles back on and directed my professional furniture removalist husband to it’s new home in our baby’s nursery. Now it’s sitting pretty ready to be filled with tiny things (so far just the top drawer has our small selection of baby clothes, mostly given to us from family) and adorned with books and those scavenged bits and bobs on top. It actually looks a lot more green in real life and not so light-pastel, but the light in this corner of the nursery is atrocious – apologies!
A major piece of the nursery jigsaw puzzle ticked off the list. I’ve got a big list still though, mostly just finishing off little things which of course seems to take the most time. I was hoping to have it all finished by 36 weeks…which is this week…so stay tuned!
Stacy says
Hi!! I am loving this story, as I was lucky enough to purchase a twin set of Queen Anne drawers and have decided to strip them back for my girls room but having trouble deciding which colour as we have one peppa lover and two monster high: I may go a nice pale pink 🙂
Kathy says
I love that this piece has family history and your’s (baby’s Mummy) nonetheless. I love the mint green that you picked and way better than the trusty old white. Great job Mummy to Be. Regards Kathy A, Brisbane, Australia
Anne@GritandGiggles says
36weeks, wow that has flown. I love that set a draws, as you said a pretty shape. I like the idea of going out on a limb and painting it mint. We ended up with a blue room a teenagers and Mum has always gone for paint in colour so it is the walls that get the colour not the trim. Always left things nice and bright. I like the sound of your nursery, it sounds calming and peaceful.
Kate says
Hi Emma, I have been reading your blog for a few months now and I thought it was time a say hi.
Love your colour choice, I’m about to paint my boys new to us bunk beds. My first thought was white but I’m now leaning towards a soft grey. I had a purple room too growing up.
sharon says
love it, but can’t work out which one you picked from the three samples, they look so different dry and finished! I MUCH prefer drawers for little baby clothes, you can fit so much in neatly folded little stacks! And with room in the bottom drawers for hand me downs in the next size ready to grow into.
Tip: I found a laundry basket (wicker if you want it pretty) fantastic for tossing cloth nappies into (I folded my towelling ones in half to hang on the line so half the job was done when taking it off, just fold again and into the basket) Handy to grab for either burp cloth or bum. Did the same with any fitted nappies I used as well, tossed into the basket. Little socks too I threw in a smaller basket, those pesky things are hard to corral and keep in one spot otherwise!!
Emma says
Yes sorry had so much trouble trying to take good photos of it completed in it’s dark corner of the nursery! It was the middle paint sample, which is a much better representation of it in a lot more natural light. I’m planning on putting a nappy/laundry basket next to these drawers near the door, thanks!