A breath of fresh air

When Austin came home from Iraq in 2005 I helped him unload his household goods into the house he and his buddy would be renting. When he left for Iraq we were not dating, but when he came home a year later I just knew we'd be getting married. A lot changed that year. We unloaded a big, heavy dresser - contents still in drawers - and lugged in into his room. He decided to go through the drawers, and in the top 'junk' drawer I found an envelope full of letters. The handwriting looked familiar, and the return address was 

21110 Carmel Valley Drive Katy, TX 

That, my friends, is where I grew up, and the stack of letters tucked into the envelope were letters I had mailed to him when we were 'dating' in junior high/high school. He had kept 7 year old letters from me in his junk drawer. He kept them and stored them away in 2004 not knowing I would be with him when he unloaded it upon return. I was blown away. In those 7 years he must have had a dozen girlfriends, and back in our day (after hiking up hill in the snow) we hand wrote letters to boyfriends/girlfriends. We made signs and pictures. I know he must have had similar letters from other girls, but none were safely kept for an unknown future. Gasp, sigh. 

I love the memory of finding those letters in that dresser, but I didn't necessarily love the dresser. It was a solid piece of furniture, much higher quality than any dresser I had ever owned, but it was out of date, out of style...and the hardware hurt my eyes. The dresser stuck with us though, and it made its way from Killeen to Aurora to Seaside. Once we found out we were moving and having another baby I asked Austin if we could please refashion the dresser for the baby and either upgrade or in any other way remove it from our room. There was slight hesitation - he'd had it his whole life! It's a nice dresser! Where would he put all his stuff??? (Because, you see, austin had 8 of the 9 drawers...the only drawer that was mine was the former junk drawer turned jewelry drawer) I promised him I'd find a place for all of his things if he'd please let me re do the dresser for the baby. He agreed, although I don't really think I gave him a choice. I just started telling people that's what was happening! What a patient man he is. After all, I was pregnant with his third child - what else was he to do?

We got to Killeen and devised a plan for Loretta's room. The final piece would be the dresser makeover. My thoughts: her room would be shabby chic rustic chic some sort of soft feminine chic without too much pink. Got it? Pictured in your head?

I had no idea how to execute.

We made a stripe pattern on one wall of her room which came out all wrong in my head. I wanted the purple to be the primary color, but the purple turned out too bold for my vision and now my plan of a purple dresser was just not going to work. I had artwork/wall decor that I couldn't seem to place, colors I didn't think were blending - what in the world was I thinking, trying to be a girl mom?? I was lost.

After a frantic and wordy message (wordy? Me?) to one of my top 5 favorite friends of my mom, who I'll claim as my friend too, I was back on track. 'Pull the mint from the wall to the drawers and paint the dresser white' she said. Mint? White? But I said purple? Did you read what I wrote? Ok. You're the expert! I'll go with it.

And expert she is. The dresser is so beautiful and I've gotten gushing reviews from my husband about how awesome of a mom I am to have seen the beauty in his old dresser for our baby girl. (Thanks misskim ;) ) I'm sure someone out there doesn't agree, but I think it's just about the most beautiful dresser I've ever seen. The best part: it completes the room and brings the look I was hoping for. I am ecstatic.

It's dumb to say that designing a room has given me confidence I needed in being a girl mom, but it has. Sure, I can do sports and race cars and avengers and Legos. But this room - I can do this too!

My angel Loretta - oh, how I love you.

Here is the before and after of the dresser...

And here is her FINALLY completed room, the best room in the house:

Her little reading corner could use some decorating help, but I needed the blanket which inspired the color theme in here somehow - and the bookshelf just proves we live here, we read here, we love here.