For my first blog I've attempted some pretty simple upholstery. I'm not going to claim this as my own project that I dreamed up in my head. My hopes for this blog is to document projects that I attempt and a chance to showcase all things "mommy." So for this particular post I originally got my inspiration (and instructions) from Pinterest which was originally posted on IKEA Hackers:
I wanted to do something with Lily's dresser to fancy it up as it was just plain and frankly was boring me.
I've also wanted to dress up her side of the room since back when I was pregnant with her. It just took me a while... So this is my first step in a belated, seudo nursery. (FYI we share a room; it's half mine, half nursery.)
First thing was to wander to the fabric store and find some cheap fabric. Plain cotton was my original plan but in the SALE aisle I fell in love with a gorgeous, pink flannel print. It was $2.99, cheaper than most everything else so I nabbed it. In the above mentioned post she suggested using batting as well to add cushion. Well I'm cheap and batting isn't so I grabbed some $5/yard felt. For 4 drawers I figured I needed close to 2 yards of each.
One difference between my
drawer and the one in the
tutorial I read was that mine had
handles. No biggie though,
I just took them out.
Boom!
Cutting the material was easier than I thought. I just put the drawer face down on it. For the felt I just drew a line around the drawer; the pencil was angled in a tad. Voila! I was even able to get all 4 drawers cut out of 1 yard. So I have 1 left over! ;-)
The flannel was a little trickier b/c you need the extra to overlap and staple. I did the same thing, put the drawer flush on the corner of the fabric but then this time I moved it to allow 1 inch. I marked a little with a pencil and slid it another inch. Then marked the outer edge of the drawer and cut it out, it was perfect!
Next I needed to put the fabric (right side down) on the table then the felt on top. It took a bit with the first one to get it adjusted so that it was straight and equal allowance on all sides. Then the drawer...
It takes some maneuvering but I finally got it centered and the drawer in place. Now it's STAPLE TIME! Lily was taking a nap by this time but luckily she's a champ and I was able to finish all 4 drawers without waking her up. Best kid ever. I used some common sense supplied from my dad and stapled a few in the middle on the front, then the back and lastly the side.
I had to remove the tracks from the drawer to get the sides done so
that the fabric didn't block them.
Now that it's all stapled I get to do the "best" part. Get the handle back in. I tried a couple techniques involving scissors, a seam ripper, a needle... Finally I took a skinny screw and used it to screw through the hole. I did this from both sides. That made a big enough hole to put the original screw in and push it through just enough. 
There you have it! I got the handle back on and had a bright, vibrant drawer to add some life to our room!!
As a note: I realized the 2 on the right matched up perfectly! I didn't even intend for this, I wasn't going to put in that much effort to line up the pattern. I tried to make them similar but it worked out in my favor. The bottom left is the only one that's a bit off but ohhhh well. If you use a pattern you can of course get them lined up and such but I think with this pattern it looks fine either way.
Look for more nursery tutorials soon; my mother is here helping with Lily while I clean, organize and decorate. This is the week of finally doing the DIY pins in my Pinterest. ;-)
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