One Delightful Dresser

When we began shopping for nursery furniture one specific goal I had was to find a dresser that we could repurpose into a changing table.  Our desire was that all the furniture in Jaedon's room would be able to grow with him as he got older.  Since the style of J's room is vintage outdoors I really wanted something that looked modern, childlike, while maintaining an aged look.  I turned to my favorite blogs for ideas and found this baby, I WAS IN LOVE!  That dresser was exactly what I was looking for.  So we began hunting....

Fast forward 3 months, still no luck.  We found several at antique stores, thrift stores and on craigslist, but the majority were too large (after all we do live in an apartment), too short, too beat up, and WAY to expensive.  We were unable to find anything under $150.  With a set budget of $100 for the dresser/changing table, we were simply running out of options....UNTIL.....

We found this delightful dresser...

I had seen this Amy Coe Dresser on the Babies R Us website months prior and dismissed it because of the price tag of $350.  So imagine my surprise when in Babies R Us one afternoon my sweet husband called me over to look at a dresser that was on sale that he really liked.  It was wrapped in plastic among the sea or other out of box furniture.  I was shocked!  Of course my bargain shopper instincts immediately kicked in and I reached for the price tag fearing for the worst...$97.00!!!!  WHAT!!!! We called over a sales person to ask what was wrong with it, obvious it had to have a problem or be marked incorrectly.  The sales person explained the box it was in got damaged in transit so they had to assemble the dresser and sell it at the same price as a floor model!  And if that isn't incredible enough, they had an additional 25% off sale on ALL the out of box furniture....our delightful dresser cost a grand total of $78!!!  

I love the deep drawers, sturdy design, removable changing pad frame, holes instead of knobs and cubby storage on top.  After about a week with the new dresser/changing table we realized boxes in the cubbies would help to keep a clean look.  After spending a few weeks box hunting we realized we would have to have custom boxes made due to the 19" depth of each cubby, that would be a small fortune.  Creativity strikes again!  Since nothing in the boxes would be heavy we decided to make the boxes out of foam core and cover them to look like scrabble tiles.   When all was said and done the 3 boxes cost us a grand total of $14!  They are light, functional and with the chalkboard labels (which I had on hand) will be reusable for years to come.

Holds an entire package of diapers, shown here with half pack.

And much to my delight, our delightful dresser fit like a glove on the wall we really wanted it on! To the right of the changing table is the door to the bathroom, SO convenient.

With the small amount of space on this wall we decided to forgo a diaper genie since it would be an ongoing expense purchasing bags and I am not a huge fan if them.  So where do we put dirty diapers?  If you look closely at the picture above you will see a bag to right of the dresser, thanks to the continual supply of grocery bags and a very sturdy removable command strip hook we have our own make shift diaper genie for $3.  We are blessed to live in a complex that has valet trash service so we change the bag out each night, keeping from any germs or smells.  We love this system and when we move to reusable diapers and wipes we will just switch the plastic bag to a laundry bag!

So what do you think? Have you found a great deal on furniture for your nursery or home?  If not don't give up, just keep hunting!

Happy Doodling!

hj