I've recently been scouring Craigslist daily looking for a dresser that I can use as a changing table in Sweet Baby J's nursery. I've also visited every antique and consignment store I know of multiple times, but all to no avail. Either things were too expensive or not the right size/style. I wanted something vintage-y looking, but a lot of that stuff has been redone in the "shabby chic" style, which I love but it isn't the look we've put together in the nursery so far. I needed more of a mid-century style to work with what we already had in the room. At first I'd hoped to find something painted white, but after looking a little longer I decided to try to something in a stained-wood finish instead. With older painted furniture, there's always the danger that somewhere in there you'll have a coat of paint that contained lead. Since at this point I don't have the time (or inclination) to strip and refinish something myself, I didn't even want to start down that road.
So, wood dresser, sort of vintage, some specific measurements (tall enough I don't break my back bending to change diapers, wide enough to accommodate the changing pad, etc.), and I wanted it for under $200, and ideally for even less. Craigslist, which had proved so fruitful with the $40 rocking chair, turned up nothing day after day. The one time we found something that we wanted to go see, the guy sold it before we got a chance.
This weekend when my parents were in town, they mentioned that I should check the St. Louis Craigslist, too, and that they would also keep their eyes open. So yesterday, lo and behold, I came across this gem:
A pretty cool looking dresser and chest (or as the sellers called it, an "oak,dresser,set"), not a bad price, and located just about 30 minutes from where my parents live... could we have a winner? I emailed the sellers and asked if my dad could come take a look and possibly make an offer. Daisy & Ronnie (actual names) were agreeable to that, and so today Dad took a trip out to Union, MO to check it out for me.
Apparently Ronnie had actually already done a lot of work to the set, including stripping it of several coats of paint to get it back to the wood finish. Dad said the furniture was solid, the drawers all moved beautifully, and the handles and knobs appeared to be original. I said I'd take it! Plus Dad did the negotiating dirty work and got them to take $200 for the set instead of $250. I didn't really need the chest of drawers, but it certainly doesn't hurt to have a matching set. There's even a large mirror for the dresser, which Dad says could use some work but might be nice to add later on once we are ready to use it as a dresser and not as baby furniture.
Later Dad texted me a picture that showed that what I thought was just wood grain in the Craigslist photos was actually a criss-cross inlay of wood on the drawer fronts. Kind of a neat detail!
So now the set is at my parents' house in St. Louis, airing out in the garage, and my handy-man daddy is going to do a little work on one of the legs. And then at some point (hopefully before baby is born) he'll load it up and bring it down to us. And then I will fill it up with tiny baby clothes and diapers and other assorted preciousness. The dresser/changing table was the final big piece of my nursery "puzzle," so I can't wait to see it in place.
Three cheers for my Dad for all his help and hard work!
No comments:
Post a Comment