Vivienne’s Dresser Before and After

Don’t you just love looking at furniture before and afters? I do. But I’ve noticed that when I look at so many of them, sometimes they all start to look the same.

But once in a while, one stands out.

Vivienne over at The V-Spot recently shared a Craigslist dresser that she transformed. I couldn’t believe the dramatic change!! She purchased it for $25, and it originally looked like this…

Ummmm…yeah.  Looks like someone was prepping that dresser to go on a hunting trip or something.  Anyway, after stripping off all of the crazy paint and refinishing the wood, Vivienne added a little something special to the drawers.

I know that cowhide is one of those things that people have a pretty strong reaction to…you either love it or hate it.  I happen to LOVE it!!  What can I say…I’m a Texas girl, and perhaps just a country girl at heart. 

I used to office out of a furniture and accessories store here in central Texas that sold what I would call Texas rustic furniture (but not the junk with the stars all over it), and it was pretty pricey. This piece looks like it would fit right in there!

I applaud Vivienne for thinking outside of the box on this one.  I think it looks FANTASTIC!!  It makes me want to start shopping around for cowhide remnants!!

 

 

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18 Comments

  1. I saw this on another blog, but they failed to include a before picture. Holy crap!! I would have passed that sucker up, no doubt about it. I love the finished product!

  2. What an amazing transformation! Seeing the "before" picture has encouraged me to look at second hand pieces in a more favorable light!

  3. I was at market at the World Trade Center on Monday and there are several high-end showrooms featuring this look. This would fit right in at a pretty hefty price tag. Well done!

  4. Wow. I have to say, that is one of the best dresser transformations I have ever seen! Whether you like cowhide or not, you have to appreciate the bold talent it took to do that!

  5. Good eye and catch! This is a fabulous makeover. Thanks so much for sharing!
    ~Pam
    pamspaintparlor.typepad.com

  6. It was so ugly before that the people should have paid her to take it away! AMAZING transformation! I wish I had those kind of skills…

  7. Wow! That's very neat. It's definitely not the style of my home but I absolutely love it! It looks totally high end now. Is that nail head trim that she just glued on? I'm really liking the nail head trim look, seeing it all over right now. Is it easy to work with?

  8. I've working with nailhead trim only once. Difficult? Not really. Time-consuming. YES!! I used the individual nailheads, so that's what took so long. I can't tell what Vivienne used here, but I can tell you that on most things, I'm NOT a fan of the nailhead strip, where you insert the actual nailhead every five or so spaces. The reason is because the nailheads that you actually insert into the strip are always a slightly different color, and it's VERY noticeable on most things.

    Anyway, here are the two posts where I talk about my experience with nailhead trim:

    http://blog.addicted2decorating.com/2010/10/my-thousand-dollar-headboard.html

    http://blog.addicted2decorating.com/2010/10/headboard-with-nailhead-trimtake-two.html

  9. I did use the nailhead strips and it worked quite well. There was a very very slight difference, but now that it's up I can't really notice any difference between the "faux" nailheads and the ones that were actually nailed in.

  10. I'm not sure how I feel about the cowhide, but I have to say that it looks a billion times better than how it started!!

    Someone needs to teach a class in how to see the potential in a piece of furniture! I would have never bought the "before" dresser. 🙂

  11. What a great idea. Thanks for sharing this article. I'm glad that I've found it. I love the cabinet, it was very creative and stylish.

  12. I love transforming things from Craigs list! This one is an inspiration I'm an English lady living in Texas… I've got to get my Texas on!