Our project the last couple of weeks has been changing the cheap, ugly dresser here into the beautiful changing table you saw in the photos of our nursery on the last page.

The first step was to remove the drawer-pulls, which just didn't look right for our plans.  Then I filled in the dents, gouges, and holes with wood putty, sanded it down, primed the whole dresser, and painted it with a couple of coats of white paint.  We decided on a diamond pattern, and I drew up a few different diagrams for the layout.  Once Catherine & I figured out how we wanted it to look, I made a template for my diamond pattern & traced it out onto the surface of the dresser; then I marked it off with tape.

Catherine found these super cool drawer knobs at a quilting store near campus:

Once I had painted the diamonds with two coats of yellow--actually, it's a pale yellow called "Grapefruit Slice"--touched up the white paint, and attached the new knob, we had the beautiful changing table you see here.

I remembered a plain wooden shelf with hooks that we used to use as a coat rack when we lived in Queens, pulled it down out of the attic, and painted it a bright blue (actually, "Planetarium"), then hung it up on the wall above the changing table.  We will hang some sort of sorter from some of the hooks, along with this little poem and picture we'll get framed soon.

Now, all we need to do is go buy one of those changing table pads and attach it to the top of the dresser and voila our chic designer changing area will be complete.