DIY: Not Our Strongest Suit

In an effort to prevent receipts from piling up and money from dwindling down as we consider what to put in our new condo, I thought DIY projects were the perfect way to go. Take old furniture and give it a little facelift with some new paint, hardware, maybe a bit of embellishment here and there. Must be easy enough. As an avid HGTV viewer, I'll tell you that refinishing is the name of the game on that network. It looks so quick and easy, and produces some stunning results--it can't really be due to editing, right? Wrong. Just like trashy reality TV, what you see isn't...reality. Oh how I wish now more than ever, my naive soul wasn't spoiled by TV editing.

My first brilliant idea was to refinish my childhood bedroom furniture. In the beginning of August I took a trip up to my parents' house for a bridal shower, which was the perfect time to start the 'minor' project. I figured it'd be a breeze since my mom has an electric sander. And although that was more pleasant than sanding by hand; unfortunately, it did not make the whole experience more pleasant. Priming was one of the worst experiences of my life. The thickness of the stuff combined with the terrible humidity outside was killing my chances of anything close to an even coat. I should have plucked a random second-grader off the streets to do the job. Believe me, it would have looked a lot better. Ugh, it was terrible. After priming a dresser, I wondered who would win the next battle--me or the desk. I ended up going forth with priming that, which was even worse than the dresser. Rounded legs were a killer. I didn't think it could get any worse.

Even though I'm 25, luckily my mother still has pity on me. The dear woman offered (yeah, we'll go with that) to paint the dresser white when we got back to Virginia. She was coming with me for little vacay. I know there is a God because he saved me from the torture of painting. Mom, you're the best. And look what a fabulous job you did!

Our second DIY was to replace the drawer pulls on a recently purchased dresser from craigslist. The blackened brass dangly handles just weren't our style. After searching high and low for pulls that would cover the existing holes, and anticipating spending $72 for some at Lowe's, I landed on some from Target ultra cheap at $20. If you don't know already, most places selling knobs and pulls only have sizes for cabinets. That's rather unfortunate when looking for dresser hardware. Doesn't quite match up. So, we were going to have to drill a new set of holes on this dresser. Something that seemed so easy, ended up quite taxing on Jeremiah's emotional stability and our marriage altogether. We'll leave it at that. We've recovered from the experience, and have a nicer looking dresser to show for it.

My last project, was a DIY toy chest cushion. Oh good night. I got a sewing machine for Christmas and let's just say sewing is still not my forte. Not sure what it is, but I can't sew a straight line to save me. Probably my impatience, as I slam down the presser-foot to speed things up a bit. Are you surprised? I was really apprehensive about this project, and was actually hoping my mom would feel inspired to do it for me while she was here. Mom, are you laughing right now at how pathetic I am? Well, she was off with no word of the cushion except for showing me where in the Martha Stewart Sewing Encyclopedia it gave instructions. It looked impossible. I figured I'd never do it. But believe it or not, I did! It was quite difficult, and I think Martha needs to address a few issues she missed while directing the not-so-everyday sewer. For instance, why didn't things match up when I pinned them together? And how the heck do you properly sew around corners when you have a big wad of fabric? From far away, this cushion looks quite alright. Up close, no dice. A shotty job leaves the seams misaligned at best. Oh well, it's done. It doesn't match the chest you say? You're right. That's supposed to get refinished with white paint, but as you know by now, I'm not sure I can handle that quite yet.