Dress Up Station for Christmas!

We, I mean I, decided way back this summer that The Kid was going to get a dress-up-trunk for Christmas.  I knew that I could score some deals on clearance Halloween costumes the day after Halloween and make it really special without spending a whole lot of money.  What is it with me and big Christmas projects... did you see the play kitchen I made last year?  If you missed it you can check that out Here.

I put out an APB on Facebook and some swap-buy-sell pages that I was looking for a dresser to refurnish, I mean SOMEBODY has to have a beat up dresser they want rid of right? No. I had like two hits on my posts, and they weren't the size or make I was looking for, I mean beggars can't be choosers but if I'm going to re-purpose it I don't want to spend $80 on a used dresser just to tear it apart.  I figured something would come along or I'd scrap the idea for another year. *Just* as I was about to give up my friend Jamie came to the rescue when I posted this link from Pinterest to show what I was looking to do: http://www.pinterest.com/pin/10836855322982382/

She had made one for her girls, and they've pretty much outgrown it.  And like the "awesome" blogger that I am... forgot to take a good before picture.  Anyway it was perfect, it already had all but the bottom drawer taken out, so all I had to do was cut a board to make a shelf above the drawer (Which turned into a bigger project than I intended, and had to get The King to help with that)  

So I've had this in my possession since probably early September, you know, when it was warm enough to paint it outside?  Yeah, procrastinator is my middle name, so here it is, the weekend before Christmas and I'm finally ready to paint, even though I had already purchased spray paint for the project I went and bought wall paint, figured I could kill two birds with one stone and use it to paint The Kid #2's dresser (another post for another time) Anyway enough of me talking, you're here for pictures. 

So here we go, starting to paint.

Inside, coat one (Ignore the room... The Kid's playroom is a disaster at the moment because it's turned into storage for a bunch of stuff (I"m working on that!)

Yeah, I told you the room was a mess... Anyway, coat 1 done, let it dry overnight

After coat #2, let it dry overnight again...

Next step, frosted lace contact paper on the back and shelf 

(it's so pretty, this picture kind of sucks)

Smooth out all the bubbles (I used a pampered chef pan scraper, I did one long sheet down the back, across the "shelf" and down over the lip.  I used packing tape to further seal off the edge on the inside of the lip (where the drawer goes) as the wood on that part was kind of uneven and it wouldn't stick well 

Add a tension rod & some hangers

I bought a drawer pull... dummy me didn't measure it and bought a 3" pull, I need a 4" which I'll pick up tomorrow when I go to town.

I added a key rack on the side to hang necklaces, and will be picking up a small mirror, I picked up a full length one, but it's way too big for the side, so I'm going to see what else I can find.  

It's all ready for Santa to come!  I covered with a blanket, turned it around backwards towards the wall, and am going to hope the 2 year old doesn't notice since it's actually been in plain sight since we got the thing I don't think she'll pay too much attention to it.  We wrapped up all the costumes and dress up accessories we bought so we'll put it all together on Christmas Morning and I'll share her reaction :)  Thanks for stopping by!!