Slice of Pink: Casa de Wallace

Hey, see a problem with this picture?

Four hours in to building our new Ikea dresser, it came to our attention that the piece of wood comprising the front of drawer #4 had not been drilled. Which means we couldn't put it together (do we look like the kind of people that own a drill and could accurately drill 17 holes in a piece of wood? It takes both of us 45 minutes and two levels to hang a picture for Pete's sake). I'm hoping Ikea will pop a properly drilled piece of wood in the mail since we live three hours away from the nearest store.

Honestly, I'm kind of impressed that there was only one defective piece, considering that there were about 25 THOUSAND parts in the two boxes we brought home. I know Ikea is cheap and blah blah blah, but if time is money, as they say, our new dresser is worth about $4000. Even without the drawer.

There's this lovely thrift store around the corner from my office. I know it seems strange to describe a thrift store as lovely, but the place is seriously the nicest thrift store I've been in. It is run by dozens of little old lady volunteers who set everything out just so. They make little displays of themed things and lots of the stuff seems less thrifty and more like cool stuff that you'd find at your grandmother's house.

A few weeks ago, Will mentioned wanting to stain furniture. We have a garage at our new place--the first time we've had a garage in our marriage--and I guess there is something about a garage that makes a man want to get handy. I swear, I actually think the garage is Will's favorite "room" in the house. I sometimes catch him out there dusting off the washer and dryer.

In any event, since we had been looking for a credenza and since Will had expressed a desire to stain some furniture, we took a trip to the lovely thrift store. I found a great piece of furniture, a six-foot dresser that I thought would repurpose perfectly as a credenza.

We were standing in the store, considering the dresser, and Will was discussing the staining process, which was going to require buying a sander, taking apart the dresser, some serious sanding, some staining, and putting back together the dresser. It was suddenly becoming clear that the whole thing was going to take a long time. Will, by nature, works deliberately and methodically (read: slowly) and as he was discussing the whole process, I realized that it wasn't like the dresser was gonna be ready by the weekend. In fact, it sounded more like the thing would be ready in 2011. If I was lucky.

But, since the dresser was a great price, in great condition, and wouldn't require driving 150 miles to Ikea, we bought it. Will and his friends picked it up and, by the time I got home from work, it was sitting in the house.

Now, you know how sometimes you are in a thrift store or a place like T.J. Maxx? And there are a million mismatched things all mashed together? And it's hard to imagine what something would look like removed from all the other stuff that's around it? But then you try something on or bring something home and it is just fabulous?

Well, that's what was going on with this dresser (now credenza). I was so absolutely positive that it would need to be stained, that it was just too much the wrong color, too 1975 for my taste. But, then it was in my house, removed from the graveyard of dressers and tacky headboards in the thrift store, and voila! It just sort of worked. I used some shoe polish to fill in some dings and we were done.

I think Will actually breathed a sigh of relief. When he said that he wanted to stain furniture, I think he was imagining an end table, maybe. Or a small chair. Not a six-foot dresser with nine drawers and a cupboard and a bunch of beveling.

It seems to have worked out better for everyone. Will can find something more manageable to work on in the garage (maybe the top of our coffee table, hint, hint) and I don't have to wait five months for a place to hide the mail when guests come over.