My vintage dresser was originally our media console—partly because it was charming in our living room and secondly, it was a bit too dirty to be holding clothes. But when our 46″ TV came into the picture, our 42″ inch dresser had to return to its original duties. Now how to handle peeling wood veneer and the odd soot stains. . . .Yes, hardware store drawer liners would’ve been the easy route—but you know, that’s just not my style. Wallpapering on the other hand, the chicest and most difficult approach, was the choice I went with. We had tons leftover from our bedroom accent wall and it would be a nicer decorative tie-in than any liner I could buy.
The dresser as the temporary media center. The plan was to hinge the front drawers forward for the DVD player and stash our movies and remotes in the drawers below–not this mess stashed between the legs.
To get the dresser ready for the bedroom, I dug up our wallpaper paste, measured the drawers, cut the sheets to size, and began. Since the paper was just going to lie in drawers, I figured I didn’t need prime the drawers—wrong assumption. Always prime.
The original seam roller was long gone so I grabbed some Chinese spices from the rack and smoothed out the bubbles that way.
While I was wallpapering, I threw the bedroom desk drawer into the scheme.
At the time, I thought I was crazy putting myself through this decorative labor but each time I open my drawers, I smile. Having a pop of color and a burst of pattern emerge from a seemingly white piece is a priceless element of surprise. It speaks to the bold accent wall across the room, but in a subtle way. The little things can make a room.
