"Nesting"

With baby #2 due three weeks from today (holy cow!!), my "nesting" instinct has begun to take over. I attempted to nest last week by rearranging all the closets in the house so that the closet in the nursery could actually be used to house baby things. This affair ended with my putting too much weight on the top shelf in Gracie's closet which eventually caused it to collapse and take out the other shelves beneath it. Oops! So, since organizing clearly isn't my strong point, I have turned to DIY projects found at Goodwill. (As a side note, I only decide that refinishing/refurbishing things is a good idea when I'm extremely pregnant. I did the same thing the first time around...When I'm not pregnant, I leave well-enough alone.)

Today's project was to refinish/apholster a small bench I found for $5 at the Goodwill in Cherrydale. (Yes, this means that I have pillaged more than one GW in the area in search of "treasure.") It was covered in this hideous ivory quilted material and smelled like a pack of ciggies, but I fell instantly in love.

Mom and Dad visited for my birthday yesterday, and brought me their staple gun so that I could get started. Mom helped me pull out all the staples that were in it, and this is what we found underneath: Eww! Ugly green vinyl (that still smelled terrible!)

My idea was to refinish the bench to go in Gracie's room, so Mom also brought up some scrap fabric we had left over after finishing G's nursery a couple years ago. I found her crib bedding super-cheap at a PBKids clearance ,and so I bought a matching full/queen duvet cover to make basket liners. (If I had realized then that her first real bed would be a full, I wouldn't have cut the duvet cover up. Natch!) Anyways, Mom brought enough fabric with her to refinish the bench and make new curtains for the nursery (assuming this baby is a girl). The fabrics I had to choose from were a pink "french country" floral, and a pink stripe. I chose to go with the stripe since her new "big girl bed" comforter mimics the floral pattern.

Drumroll please...After much patience and persistence, here is the final product:

I love it! It turned out MUCH better than I thought it would and it looks adorable with her stuffed animals lined up on top.

Clearly, I am meant to redo and not reorganize :o)

Next up: sanding and repainting picture frames, a shelf, and a fireplace screen!

Featured on: A Soft Place To Land's DIY Day