From pine to fine

I won't call it furniture restoration as it really is just a makeover but I think its turned some pine into something mighty fine...

This chest of drawers has been a faithful companion to my man since he was a child, until he moved out of home (not so very long ago). Then when we moved in here and were faced with the severe lack of storage it was emptied out and came to be once again his faithful companion.

Whilst very useful in keeping clothes off the floor it just didn't work in our bedroom and had to go... We still however are very short on storage here so I needed to find a way to make it something suitable for housing the masses of itty-bitty clothes and nappies that have been accumulating in preparation for bubs arrival.

I could have used it as is of course, but where is the fun in that? So the two issues I had were, it was SO very pine and it was low to the ground making the bottom drawers awkward to use.
Solution: prettiness and legs.

Adding 150mm high legs has not only made those bottom drawers all the more accessible, its given it new style and I think combined with the high gloss black paint job a slightly Japanese feel. To keep the style up I opted to cover the drawers in fabric rather than paint.

It remains to be seen how this holds up to the test of time. From the stash I decided upon this gorgeous Indian sari fabric, it was quite thin and silky so I have also padded the outside of each drawer with wadding.

And to finish it all off nicely (and hid the years of use that some inside drawers displayed) I lined all the drawers with a similar patterned kraft wrapping paper I picked up on a discount store.

As you can see I haven't got to the handles yet, I love the simplicity of the lines without handles but due to the tapered edging on the drawers this may prove to be impractical. So that one is still up in the air, the handles that came off are unlikely to go back on as they were not the usual screw fixing but one complete lathed piece glued on with a rather large hole which if I tried to replicate would destroy my upholstery... So the plan is to live with it as is until a solution presents itself. Or more likely until it drives us crazy and we make a trip to Bunnings for a solution!

The only thing is now I think I might have to give the change table that will sit next to it the same treatment!