A Palace in Wonderland: March 2013

Happy Good Friday
Happy Birthday Me Saturday
Happy Easter Sunday
and Happy April Fool's Day Monday!

I've not been around lately because.......I had my baby! I had a little girl this past December and everything has sort of been on hold, of course! My babymoon has been full of bliss, with lullabies and baby cries. Everything a FTM should expect. Finally I am ready to show you the big reveal of the nursery, featuring the crib! I hope you like what you see. Please let me know!

Let me begin by telling you that this cute pink crib IS THE BEFORE! Before??? Yes before! When I began my search for a used baby crib, I stumbled upon this pink beauty on CraigsList, for $300. I thought to myself, well I wanted to redo something but this is so sweet I can work with it. I didn't really want pepto bismal pink crib, but again, I was willing to be open minded. What I did like about this crib from the pictures was that it didn't look like anything I had seen from the major retailers, so I was pretty sure it was from some high end boutique....and I was right!

So I drove to Dallas. It was 500 degrees that day, I remember distinctly. I didn't mind because I was the peak of my second trimester and up for ANYTHING! I had asked the owners in advance to not take apart the crib, but when I got there to meet them, they did anyway! Blahhhh! The last thing I wanted was to be buying a crib with missing parts. Wait a minute!!!!!! Wait just a minute there! Upon close inspection, I could see that someone else had already refinished this crib! Gasp! And what a horrid job they had done! My word. I kept my cool though because this crib I was pleased to discover was constructed of heavy wood. I mean, this thing weighed a ton! YES! They explained that they purchased the crib originally for their son, and then when they got pregnant with a little girl, the mother wanted to paint it pink. I told her it was lovely and that I was very excited, which I was. Actually I was really glad because I never wanted a pink crib anyway, and knew that I wouldn't feel guilty refinishing it like my original plan. But before I was willing to fork over the dough, I made them put it back together. Sure enough one part was missing but it wasn't a vital organ, so I bought it. Now before I get into the process, I just want to share with you one more thing. Imagine a small pregnant blonde, driving her husbands lifted truck in all of her glory, along the wild freeways of Dallas Ft. Worth, with a massive PINK crib standing up in the bed of the truck. I had people honking at me and swerving around. I white knuckled it all the way to my mothers, determined to arrive safely with my prize. Yes, pregnancy will make you temporarily insane.

Look ^, Yuck! Sloppy^^^

Please take note, this is the paint that the original owner used to refinish the crib. She was very proud and convinced that this was THE BEST. I will take the liberty in telling you that this is not what you paint furniture with, ever.

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When I got back home, I immediately got to work.

Step one - Strip! I used regular old paint stripper that would work for an oil base paint. I wore a mask and gloves since I was pregnant, and watched in my 600 degree garage as the paint began to bubble. I found chunks of painters tape underneath that was never properly removed, and even long hairs! Yikes!

Why look! It was teal underneath. Who knew? I surely wasn't expecting that. Such a shame as I am sure the teal would have been pretty for a girl. Oh well. I would like to also note that with AS Chalk Paint, you do not need to strip your furniture, BUT in this sloppy circumstance, I chose to do so anyway. The oil base paint streaks that the previous owner had left was not what I wanted as a canvas for my work of art!

After all of the paint was stripped, I got to sanding with my rotary sander. It was around 700 degrees that time of the day. When I was done, I wiped everything off and moved inside. YES! It was 68 degrees in the house, and there I stayed for the rest of my pregnancy.

Here are the products that I used. I would like you to notice how clean my cans are. It's because I like them that way, but also because AS is not cheap. I have no intention of wasting any of it. For the record, after using these exact cans for two projects, I have only used 1/3 of each can of paint. It's true, AS goes a long way.

I wanted to do something more than just paint. I wanted something unlike anything you would ever normally see on a crib. Something that was beautiful as well as interesting for my baby. My mother and I love rabbits, and have quite a collection, so I chose rabbits and other farm animals for the nursery theme. If I could freehand whimsy rabbits I would have, but unfortunately freehand is not my medium, so I decided to use my tissue paper transfer method.

First I simply printed out my images on regular paper to see if I liked the layout. My images came from two sources. The one on the left came from the Graphics Fairy, and the one on the right came from a seller on Etsy.

I did a test print on tissue paper, and then applied my image with matt Mod Podge. I finished it off lightly with AS Dark Wax to give it a cracked leather look.

Then I printed the actual images out on tissue paper, trimmed it to my liking, and applied it to the crib.

DONE! And oh so amazing!

Here are the textiles I chose to make my bumper and draperies with.

Finished! I made the crib skirt, bumper, draperies, and bedcrown draperies.

My crib is a drop side crib. These types of cribs have been recalled, however, DH secured it for me so it no longer can rise or fall.

See my pretty bumper? I will remove it once my baby is old enough to sleep in her crib. It's there now mostly for aesthetics.