Freestyle A Room, The Challenge, Post 2 - The dresser

This challenge started and ended a loooooong time ago, but you still get to enjoy the freestyle finds that went in to making this grad student bedroom and functional and low-cost space.

My original goal was to find as many of the following items as possible:

-desk

-mirror

-dresser

-bedside table

-metal bed frame, full or queen size

-shelving, (for closet or bedroom)

-desk lamp 

-other light fixtures

-hangers for closet

Below is the story of how we ended up with this fully functional dresser, for free!

One of the first finds for The Challenge was a wooden dresser, from only 1 block away. It is a solid piece with nice lines and all drawers intact, only missing some drawer pulls. I think this dresser may have been sitting in a basement before coming in our life.  Once we hauled it home (thank goodness it was so close) the dresser got a thorough cleaning and a few days of baking powder treatment to absorb any lingering musty odors.

The ornate outline of the missing drawer pull hardware is visible on the drawer front.

Putting other FREESTYLE drawer pulls into service.

Detail: drawer pull originally salvaged from a discarded dresser in Brookline, reused for this dresser.

Detail: drawer pull from a previous find, reused for this dresser.

Some of the drawer corners were a bit loose so they got a glue treatment.

There were a few of these cool old porcelain knobs on the dresser when we found it. Below is a comparison, the knob on the left shows the original condition, the knob on the right has been cleaned.

Below is a detail of the top section. 

Voila! The finished dresser, in service on a sunny afternoon.

Happy freestyling!

Have a cow!

Another Freestyle find that I had never shared, dug up from the archives.  Why hadn't I posted this before, perhaps because it was staring me in the face in my old entry hallway? We didn't have to do anything to clean it up or repair it.  

How could we resist that pair of eyes?

The front hallway light might be a little dim, but there is no mistaking this folk art cow! 

(original artist: Warren Kimble)

Keep on mooooooving towards that next freestyle find, you never know what's around that corner.

Doorknob pocket! An easy storage solution for small spaces.

If luck is preparation meeting opportunity, then craft luck is stored-up inspiration meeting someone with a bag full of shrunken wool scraps - at least if you want to make an over-the-doorknob hanging storage pocket.  This project was carried out on a sunny winter afternoon using scraps of wool from old sweaters that were being repurposed into mittens by a very crafty lady in Cambridge.

Step 1: Find wool scraps of suitable shape and size, measure for desired width.

Step 2: Convince wool-scrap donor to also sew your pocket pieces together on her awesomely restored vintage sewing machine.

This project involved a grey wool backing and two fun striped pieces for the pockets. The sewing consisted of a few straight lines, making this an easy project for any sewing experience level.

Step 3: Trim away the excess wool on the sides, and cut a hole for hanging the pocket over the doorknob. Note: start with the smallest hole possible, you don't really expect to be moving your new hanging pockets around too much.

Step 4: Store handy items in your new over-the doorknob pockets!

Happy freestyling!