Craigslist, Oh how I love you!

I love Craigslist. As a family, we have sold two cars, tons of clothing, furniture, decor, etc. We have also bought quite a bit of stuff. Well, I’ve been on the hunt for a vintage dresser for a few months. I’ve seen one or two that I like, but the price wasn’t even in the ballpark of what I wanted to spend. Well, I got lucky last week. This beautiful dresser was listed for $100. Sold.

(Can you tell which room I put it in based on the curtains?)

Luke went and picked it up for me. I might have backed out (if I was there), because the home had some strong smokers. The dresser had a definite stench to it. I’m glad Luke ended up getting it, because I really love how it looks and fits in the space.

I found a great article on Wood Menders about how to get rid of smoke smell from furniture. Based on their article, I placed paper plates filled with baking soda in each drawer. After 12-24 hours, I threw away the old plates and did it again.

After the baking soda, I wiped everything down with Lysol wipes. After the Lysol wipes, I used a lemon wood cleaner. The outside of the dresser doesn’t have a smell anymore, but the inside drawers have a tiny bit. Once we get a nice sunny day, I will take the drawers outside and let them sit for 6-8hrs. Overall, I’m super happy with the purchase.

Here’s a picture of the dining room without the dresser:

and with the dresser:

I need to take a furniture marker and clean-up a few spots and then on to styling it.

Any ideas for styling? I definitely want to do artwork and do it big. I don’t want to use any mirrors. You can’t really see it, but the whole china cabinet built-in monstrosity is backed in mirrors. Adding more to the space would definitely be over-kill. A punch of color (maybe coral?) would probably be good. What do you think?