. dresser fixer upper .

i stole took this dresser off of my mother-in-law's hands a while back and it's just been sitting in a room waiting for it's turn to be fixed up and used.  when i decided to redo the girls' bedroom, i just KNEW the dresser would be perfect.  and i KNEW, because of my love for all things white, including socks and undies, that this dresser would be bright white too.  and because of my track record for not taking before pictures, why start now.  so, trust me, this thing had seen better days.  it was a cream color, but had been moved from place to place and looked dirty.  a quick spray of ultra white paint and she shined like never before!
when i first started fixing up this dresser, i took off all the knobs.  i think the MIL had changed them out once before, but they still weren't what i wanted for my girls' room.  now, the top two drawers had holes for two long handles each and the other four drawers had holes for one handle each.  because i'm lazy and didn't want to look for the perfect handles because i wanted to save money and drawer pulls can get expensive, i opted for a low cost way to add handles to the drawers.  insert these ...

yep.  scissors and a $2.50 roll of mango colored grosgrain ribbon.  the ribbon looks pretty fuschia-ish / hot pink here, but, trust me, it's a coral-mango color.  orangy-pink.  ok, enough already.  you get the point.  here's a semi-before picture.  it's already been painted and put in the room (which it fits perfectly between the new beds.  that's another post.)

i just cut strips the length i wanted and tied knots. easy peasy.  here's a horrible shot of the actual handle part.

and here's what the inside looks like.  frayed and all.

and the whole dresser after all handles were installed.

cute?  and the ribbon perfectly matches the girls' bed sheets.  i think it's the perfect touch.  now, you may be wondering what we're using the dresser for since the girls have all their clothes in the closet.  i gave each girl a top drawer for their "junk".  ok, so they haven't quite got to where they want to keep "treasures", but i know the day will come that they will want to just put something that they have found in a safe spot, and now they have that.  the top drawer is their junk drawer.  we all need one, right?  the two middle drawers are currently empty because i haven't decided what to put in them.  the bottom drawers look like this ...

this is where we keep our barbies and all their junk accessories.  oh, and their cars in their own parking garages.  this is just an easy way for them to be picked up.  pull the drawer out and throw it all in.  i'm all about simple these days and the girls are learning how exactly to pick up their things.  it's a win win.