Kids Dress up Ideas – The Chartreuse Wardrobe

Kid’s Dress-Up Station

I have many compulsions and neuroses which include an anxious type of yearning for hand cream, folded socks, the colour teal, Ryan Reynolds and….organization.

Little did I know that the heavens were listening when I went on a rampage through our playroom trying to re-organize the kid’s dress-up clothes because all of a sudden Ryan Reynolds was sitting on my couch folding teal socks. Okay, maybe not. However, the next day I slowly cruised by the thrift store and there, sitting in the parking lot was a vintage wardrobe. Not antique, not fancy, not even all that attractive actually – but it would be mine, oh yes, it would be mine.

Its price tag of $44.99 was a little rich for my thrifty tastes, so I pimped out my mom to use her Seniors Discount (and her truck) and got it for $35 – thanks, Mom! The cashier was also hard-pressed to believe my beautiful mom was over 55 (just barely, right Mom?) I hope I get those genetics!

Anyways, so enough jibber jabber – let’s move on to the transformation of this kid’s dress-up station. For the actual HOW-TO, please refer to the post  “How to Paint Cabinets and Furniture”

Here’s how this bad boy looked when I found him…

While it earns points for being solid wood, someone had used a semi-transparent blue stain on it and it was ticky-tacky.

Inside the cabinet area, there was wallpaper backing that was older than dirt. So I used a simple mix of fabric softener and warm water (1:4) and soaked it for two minutes and it came off easy-peasy using a plastic scraper – phew.

And here is how it turned out…(drum roll please)

I couldn’t decide between painting it pink or chartreuse – so I decided to live on the wild side and I’m glad I did – it’s cutie patootie!

As you can see, the clothing roll-out on the right side of the cabinet is perfect for Tim’s, I mean the girl’s princess clothes (and there’s a Woody outfit in there too).

The clothing area had been painted with oil paint underneath the wallpaper, so I sanded it and spray-primed it (which is a lot faster than painting) and then sprayed it out with white semi-gloss paint. The drawers (which were unfinished wood) got the same treatment. For pieces like this – especially interiors, spray paint is an easy and quick alternative to brush and roller.

There’s a separate pull-out each for purses, necklaces, shoes and magic wands.  I used the big bottom drawer for hats as we have quite a few cowboy hats in our dress-up collection – yippeekiyay!

This piece was a diamond in the rough just waiting for a little bit of KLC.

The total cost you ask?

• Cabinet – $35
• Quart of Paint and roller – $30
• Wallpaper scraps – free!
• New knobs and hinges – $15

Total project cost       $80

If you liked this, you might also like my Painted Pink Piano Project!

Chat soon,

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