One of the most stressful parts of creating the baby’s nursery was the dresser/changing table, or lack thereof.
You see, when we traveled to New Hampshire in October after losing my mom, we bought a beautiful mid-century dresser at our favorite vintage store. It was long and skinny and had tons of drawers, perfect for storing little baby items.
However, with three of us on the trip we didn’t have room in the wagon to bring the dresser home , so we paid for it and left it there. We decided to take a Christmas road trip/ winter getaway to the White Mountains and pick it up then.
Over the next few weeks, though, my back pain increased to the point where it was unbearable to be in the car, even for 15-20 minutes at a time. (This pain was caused by pinched nerves, which were later diagnosed as caused by my too-high amniotic fluid level.) It became apparent that I couldn’t do the 7 hour drive with Ryan, no matter how much I needed that dresser in order to finish the baby’s nursery.
I contacted several shipping companies to have the dresser moved down, but the estimates were in the $900 range, which seemed ridiculous for a single piece of furniture.
The only solution was to find another dresser for the baby’s room, and to pick up the New Hampshire one in the spring.
When my dad came to visit for Christmas, we hit up several thrift stores. We found a $90 solution at the first store we visited, and thankfully my dad convinced me to buy it. I was about to walk away, holding out for something with fewer scratches. It looked pretty rough at the store:
Once we got the dresser home, I gave it a good cleaning with a rag, and my dad worked at rubbing some marks off of it. I tried using a scratch repair waxy pencil to fix the scratches, but it didn’t work. Then I rubbed at the scratches and chipped areas with Danish Oil. Almost as if by magic, the oil helped the scratches to blend in, making it look much less beat up and more like a well-loved vintage piece.
I’m so glad he convinced me to give it a chance, though. The beat up dresser has a solid wooden frame and a good mix of small and large drawers, even if the surfaces are veneer.
In the end, the dresser was perfectly acceptable for a baby’s nursery, and as I filled the drawers with the tiny baby items, I realized that I was very happy with the purchase. It was a good lesson in the idea that sometimes a quick and easy 80% solution is good enough.
As for the beautiful, solid dresser we bought in New Hampshire? I think that’s going into our master bedroom where it can be truly appreciated.
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