Project: The Baby's Armoire

It's been a while since I've purchased a new piece of furniture, so I was pretty excited when I received a call back on a Craigslist posting from the lady who had this armoire listed for sale. We made arrangements to meet up at 1 p.m. last Saturday, and I sure am glad I asked Scott to go along to her place on the west side of town, because I don't think the lady and I could have gotten this handled by ourselves. It's a pretty good example of a solid piece of craftsmanship.

When I first saw this listed, my first thought was, "Look at all that storage! I bet I could fit almost all the baby clothes and supplies in there." I was happy to see that this armoire had the original shelving and drawers in it, and hadn't been shamelessly retrofitted to a tv cabinet, like so many have been.

While the exterior is a little rough, with some dents and scratches, the interior finish is still in really good shape. I think what I'll do is paint the outside, but leave the inside as-is. A change in hardware will also be on the project list.

For now it's sitting in the garage, because Scott let me know in no uncertain terms that he wouldn't carry it back up the basement steps for its paint job. So there it waits, until it comes up on my list of weekend projects, and until I decide what paint color I want to put on it.

I don't think either of us is looking forward to the struggle of getting it downstairs, but I think once it's painted and in the baby room it will be more than worth the trouble. Hooray for my first successful Craigslist purchase, which I even scored for $20 less than she was asking - $80 was the final price for this classic piece of furniture that we'll be able to use in our house for years and years. I offered her $75, but was really glad when she said $80, because I had only brought $20 bills. :-)