Refashion of a Refashion: Navy Linen Skirt Redux

One of my big misses last year was this navy linen skirt refashion. There wasn't anything exactly wrong with the skirt, it just didn't really work in my wardrobe. In my Top 5 Misses post, I mentioned that I would like to fix the issues I had with this skirt to make it more wearable for me, and I finally got out my seam ripper a few weeks ago.

The big change you can see right off are the buttons. As much as I love shell buttons, I it just made this skirt more beachy and casual looking than the rest of my wardrobe, so I was greatly limited as to what shirts I could wear with it. I knew I wanted to change them and I lucked out a little over a month ago when I came across a cache of 1/2" navy shank buttons on cards at a thrift store for 5 cents each. I grabbed all they had - I think it was 30 or so buttons, and they turned out to be the perfect size and color for this skirt. I spent some spare time removing the old ones and sewing on the new ones - easy peasy!

The next big and important change was the waistband. Originally I used a cheap polyester grosgrain ribbon as my inner waistband. It didn't seem like a problem when I decided to use it, but it was really scratchy against my stomach. Also, the skirt flares pretty quickly with the gored construction, and the ribbon was 1" wide but had zero give, which lead to some bunching up on my top stitching. I always wore my shirt untucked so it wasn't a big deal, and if it hadn't been scratchy I would've probably left it, but out it came. I picked a fun batik print fat quarter from my stash and cut some 2" wide bias tape. I needed to make sure the skirt didn't stretch out, so I used a poly satin ribbon as a waist stay inside my bias tape seam allowance - now it looks cute, stays the right size, and feels much more soft against my skin :) I also decided to actually cut a buttonhole in the bias tape and hand stitch it into the buttonhole on the front unlike last time where I was lazy and just folded the ribbon up to clear the hole, lol. It's much neater in there now. I did have one little snafoo with unpicking and I cut a tiny hole when I unpicked the ribbon waistband, which you can see at the top left of the waistband in the above photo. I just dabbed a bunch of fray check and called it good, lol.

Once I finished my two niggling changes that I had always planned, I started to think about pockets. This construction has no side seams, so adding traditional pockets wasn't really an option. Not having pockets really is a pain for me though - I wear skirts at work and I need to have my counter keys on me at the very least. Pockets just make life so much easier. So I pulled out the scrap pieces from when I cut the original waist off this skirt (because I'm crazy and keep everything) and they were just big enough to get some basic patch pockets out of! I just cut as large of a pocket as I could from the scraps and rounded off the bottom. I used my bias tape as a facing for the top and got that all enclosed, then I overcast around all the outer edges. Next I stitched around the edge of the rounded section of the pocket at a 5 stitch length and gathered it in to make a nice edge - such a life saver on a rounded pocket like this. Folding that over by hand would be a nightmare without the gathering. Then I just placed them where they looked good, measured to make sure they were evenly placed, and top stitched 2 rows to secure them.

It's amazing how much something as simple as pockets can change your whole outlook on a piece of clothing. I seriously love these pockets. They are just big enough to hold what I need in the day (actually they even fit my phone!), plus they look really cute. I'm so glad I had enough fabric to add them. Patch pockets - who knew?

So that is my refashion of my refashion :) This skirt integrates wonderfully in my closet now and I already have a bunch of things I can wear it with. The linen rayon fabric makes it super light and lovely, and I'm sure this will be a warm weather staple item this year. Hooray for saving something I thought was a failure!

Summary:
Fabric: batik print fat quarter - $1.00, scraps from previous refashion
Notions: 12 navy buttons - $0.75 (thrifted), navy thread - $0.50
Time: 3 hours

Furniture Transformation: Sewing Room Dresser

This project has been finished and in use for over a year now, but I kept putting off blogging about it until I cleaned up my sewing room really well for pictures. The room never got completely cleaned, but I wanted to get this documented and stop feeling guilty for not writing about it, so I just took pictures anyway. Now this dresser is no longer even in the same house these photos were taken in, ha ha. So, here's a real life look at another custom piece I made for my sewing room:

I finished my French Provincial dresser! I first started this redo back in May of 2013 and the dresser looked like this:

A week or so after that post, I ran into humidity problems and had to stop my spray painting for the summer (stupid Florida). I bought this dresser years ago for $10 from a friend who was moving to Saudi Arabia (thanks, Brenna!). I love French Provincial style and had a small collection (which will soon be for sale). Sadly, all of the pieces I have are pretty beat up, plus the coloring really doesn't go with any of my decor. I planned to revamp all my pieces eventually, but this was the first one to get the full treatment since I knew I wanted it to match my sewing room.

I gave this piece the full treatment - I started with sanding, then two coats of Kilz spray paint, then two coats of Rustoleum 2X Ultra-Cover in White Satin. Then I decided to get fancy. I wanted this piece to match my desk which has a coral pink top, so I started playing with what parts I wanted to accent with the coral paint. In the end I decided to paint the drawer fronts, so I did 3 coats of Valspar Color Radiance spray paint in Coral on the tops. Things got tricky on those bottom drawers - It looks like the dresser has 4 drawers, right? Not so! The bottom drawers are double deep, so that raised bar in the middle is actually part of that drawer. This only became an issue because I wanted that middle bar to stay white like the others, so I had to do some very precise masking off. I had to touch up a few places with a small paintbrush (no easy feat), but I don't think you would notice if I didn't point them out - so I wont, lol. Once I got all the main colors on, I coated the entire piece with 3 coats of Minwax PolyAcrylic.

Once the dresser was painted, the hardware did not match at all. I grabbed a can of Rustoleum Metallic spray paint in Matte Nickel and gave all the pulls several coats. It was a bit of a challenge to get the hardware off, which mean they were also difficult to put back on. My persuasion caused a few nicks to the new paint (I let them dry for a few days, but it wasn't totally cured apparently). It's not a big deal. I remember I thought it would bug the crap out of me back in April when I finished it up, but I can't remember ever even noticing it over the last year when I look at the dresser.

I'm telling you, after working on this for almost 2 years and storing it around various places for a few years before the work even began, it was a big celebration to finally get this piece in my sewing room. I originally thought I would store fabric in the drawers, but that was naive at best (I have WAY too much fabric for this little thing, lol, luckily the fabric storage situation was solved months ago). When we put this in my room, even though I was super thrilled to have it done, I had no idea what I wanted to put inside it! Isn't that crazy?! Since my original plan of fabric changed, I decided to store notions in it instead. Overtime, I've added more and more things to the drawers and now it is an integral part of my organization in the room. I store my button stash, bias tape maker machine, trims, knitting needle sets, crochet hooks, scale, heat set tool, washi tape, yarn winder, extra pins, etc. I also utilized the area under the dresser to hold more ribbons and trims along with my old tins from my Grammy (this isn't the case in my new sewing room, but I'll still show it here until I do a new sewing room reveal).

So there you have it - my finished dresser! I know the pictures look kinds of junky, but this it the real life I guess. It always looks like this (in fact, it was much worse and I cleared it off for the photos).

I still love my customized furniture I've done, and I'm really glad I made them all for my sewing room so it adds a little touch of extra joy in the room to think that I did all of that work for myself :) Since I've moved, I won't be doing any furniture remakes in the foreseeable future :( At least I got the few things in while I had the space and got to enjoy them. The unfortunate thing is that now I always look at furniture with the creative eye to see what I can remake to fit my needs ... but I won't be able to do that! Bummer. One day, lol. I'm getting my new sewing room situated (it's all together, but I'm deciding where to hang things and making a mini curtain), but I will show that soon!

FO: Falling Flowers Skirt

This project has been a seriously long time coming ... over 2 years in fact. Isn't that just ridiculous?

I started out trying to make this skirt back in 2012 when I decided I wanted to sew clothes for myself. I began with a super simple pattern from New Look 6981. I chose this because I really wanted to showcase the flower fabric, but I also wanted to change a bunch of things on my own. The pattern didn't have pockets and it didn't include instructions for a lining, both of which are necessities with me. According to the pattern measurements, the largest size included wasn't big enough for me. Naive little me thought that just increasing the width of all the pieces by 2 inches would fix this - can we say it was enormous that way? I had no idea about built in ease at the time, so I just trusted the pattern envelope and it came out so wide my hips couldn't even hold it up. After all that, I was incredibly frustrated. Not only was it too big, it also was just not a flattering style on me (somehow I decided to convert the 3 box pleats into one large box pleat down the middle - not wise, former Megan), so in my frustration I hung it up in my closet to be dealt with another day. Well, two years have passed. I've even moved and hung it in my new closet, lol, still just never had the desire to unpick the whole thing and try again. A month or so ago I finally bit the bullet, ripped it all out, and re-did it. I'm much happier with these results :)

Ugh, sorry for the crappy flash photo.

Once I had the entire skirt unpicked, I made some new realizations with my much more developed sewing brain. First off, I had cut the flower fabric so that they were "falling up", lol. Luckily I had enough fabric since I had cut it too wide in the first place, so I just turned the fabric the right way and recut the pieces. Glad I know a little more about fabric direction now. I also know more about stitch lengths - I don't know why but I used something like a 1.5 stitch length originally, which made unpicking it all a nightmare. I also had no idea what I was doing on the pocket and zipper, gladly I was able to remedy this now.

Here is my single pocket, lol. Since the pattern had a side zipper, I had absolutely no idea how to add a pocket along with an invisible zipper, so I just decided one would be fine. Nowadays, I would have looked up how to do two pockets, but I wasn't in the mood when I finally fixed this. The pocket actually came out really well :)

Sadly, the other side of my waistband ... not so much. The zipper looks great, but the waistband just wouldn't meet any closer. By the time I put the skirt on and realized this space, all it needed was a hem, so I was not about to rip the entire thing apart yet again. To be honest, I never wear anything tucked in, so no one will even see the waistband at all in real life. I may move the hook and eye eventually, but I just couldn't be bothered at the time.

 The lining did come out quite nice. I had no idea what I was doing at the time, but it seemed to work out. I didn't want the pleats to be in the lining, so I constructed the outside of the skirt, then laid the lining on top and cut it to be the right shape without the pleats (hopefully that makes sense). I also hemmed the lining about an inch shorter than the skirt to prevent it peeking out.

Originally, there was a bit more of a difference in the length of the skirt and lining. I would try on the skirt and just hate how the hem just hung there. I wanted a little volume at the hem - I'm a "fit and flare" gal. I wanted to try a hem finish to stiffen it a bit, and I decided to use interfacing. Sadly the only interfacing I had on hand was the cheapy light stuff (that wouldn't have done anything) and super heavy duty (think the stuff you use to make bags hold their shape), so I cut a 5/8" wide strip of the heavy interfacing, sewed it on, turned it under, then did a blind hem. It looked completely ridiculous! I seriously don't know why I thought that would work. This fabric is technically a quilting cotton, but it is much lighter weight than your typical variety. I purchased it at The Quilt Place in Rockledge sometime back in 2012 and I remember it was in their clearance for $5.00 a yard. I don't have the selvage piece anymore, but I'm pretty sure it was an Art Gallery fabric. Anyway, I then unpicked the hem, and cut off the interfacing section, which made me lose about 5/8" of main fabric. Then I just turned 1/4" under, turned another 5/8" under and did a tiny blind hem on my machine.

It all came out really nice looking if I do say so myself :) I did my first ever tiny rolled hem on the lining - it was quite an experience, but it worked out fine. Plus it's the lining, so I don't care if it's perfect. I thought I would need to add tulle to the lining bottom to give me more flare, but when I tried it on after the normal blind hem it looked great - just enough flare - so I left it alone.

I also decided to get really fancy and add tailor's tacks to the skirt and lining to keep it from sliding up. They look pretty dang good imo :) Also, I just pinked the insides to finish them - since there is a lining I wasn't worried about getting fancy.

For the pocket, I just copied a pocket from a skirt I already liked. I had no idea at the time that I had chosen a "complicated pocket" - it wasn't really too hard, but definitely harder than just a normal one made of lining fabric. The pocket has a band of the main fabric along the outside so it looks really professional now it's all finished :) Also the pocket was designed to be caught in the waistband which I really love - it's nice and sturdy!

Ugh - and the dreaded zipper area. The zipper looks good outside, but since the pattern didn't include lining instructions, I just winged it and it doesn't look too pretty. I didn't know how to attach the lining to the zipper at the time, so I just cut that area open in the lining. Even when I recut the pieces, I had cut too far in for me to change that now, so I just left it. I just turned the opening edges under twice and top stitched. I had to hand stitch the ends of the waistband closed inside, which was kind of a pain, but it helped me avoid any visible top stitching on the outside. I seriously hate the hook and eye area though. Oh my gosh, it looks so awful.Really though, because of how I wear my shirts it won't be an issue. The second picture at the top of this post is how it will look when I wear it in real life. I really don't know what I was even thinking about making the waistband a different color since no one will really ever see it, lol. Ah well, early sewing design choices - what can you do?

So, that's my skirt :) Is it perfect? Absolutely not. The important thing is that it is finished and wearable, so it's not hanging in the closet making me feel guilty, lol. Does it go with anything else I usually wear? No - in fact I'm pretty positive this green shirt is the only thing I have I can wear it with, lol. Also, I generally avoid white and cream on the bottom since I'm always afraid I'll stain them. Oh well.

I'm still undecided if wearing it with my favorite sweater looks ok. Is it too matchy matchy? Thoughts?

Anyway, this was definitely a "Make it work" project, and while it wasn't the most fun thing to puzzle through, I am really happy to have it finished and wearable :)

Summary:
Fabric: 2 yards Art Gallery (?) quilting cotton, $10.00; Brown quilting cotton, maybe $2.00(?); White poly acetate lining, $2.50 (?)
Notions: Invisible zipper, $2.00 (?)
Pattern: New Look 6981, pattern pieces only
Hours: About 4 to redo it, but who know how many hours when I first made it years ago...

Sewing Room Revamp - Tour My Space

I've been toying with the idea of changing things around in my sewing room for quite a while now. I liked it before, but it was just feeling too crammed. I originally had my desk situated so that my back was to the wall - I know it seems silly, but this was so that I could monitor the door, lol. I don't like to be snuck up on. The problem became that with the table where it needed to be, I had to kind of scooch in and around the desk edge to sit down, also things tend to get piled around the desk area as I'm working on them, so i could be pretty awkward to move around. One thing I have learned about myself is that if there is any type of obstacle to me getting where I need to be, I will avoid tasks that require me to be there. I need things to be easy and carefree. I know it makes me seem lazy, but it is what it is. If there is any awkwardness or when things are too cluttered and junky, I kind of shut down and all productivity goes out the window. That would defeat the whole purpose of this room as its only purpose is to be productive, so I knew it was time for some changes.

I know these aren't great photos - I could've sworn I had a photo of the previous layout on my blog already, but it turns out this was the only one I have that isn't a close up of a specific detail. Never assume :)  And I had to use my phone today for the "after" shot and the light was really messing with the iso. Anyway, I know it's hard to convey that I made lots of changes since the "before" photo is from right after I moved in, but trust me when I say it's an incredible difference when you've experienced being in it before and after. The biggest change you can see in these photos is the orientation of the desk. I finally gave in and turned my desk around. I liked being able to see the rest of the room, but this is SO much easier to move from station to station in the room. I think of it like how they tell you to plan your kitchen - you want an unobstructed triangle of space connecting your work areas so that it's easy to go from place to place. Before I would have to sidle around the desk to get to the ironing board or the table, now it's a straight shot to either - super easy!

Another long-time-coming change is that I finally raised up my table! I always knew I wanted it higher, but I could never figure out a good looking way that would raise it up enough. This change is actually what inspired me to make all the other changes - this whole redo was pretty out of the blue, lol, I just finally felt like making it happen. I was give 3 of these white drawer units by a friend when she moved months ago. I had 2 of them already in the room (one is in the closet) and I used them to store my yarn, so yesterday I brought the third one in to raise the table. The table is expandable, so it has a 5 inch area under the top for all the mechanisms. By just setting the edge that supports the mechanisms on top of the drawers, this raised the table up 10 inches! And so far this seems like the perfect height. It hits me right above my natural waist, so I don't have to hunch way over to cut things out. The weird thing is that when I stand next to the table, I feel ridiculously tall just because the table is up so high. I'm only 5'7", so I'm not all that tall, but this seems a really good height - also since it feels so tall I doubt I would be as likely to just toss stuff on top of it like I used to. I can now stand upright and work at this table which is so awesome. I've already used it :) I did also pull the table out from the wall to clear the area under that basket of tools - it worked ok though because now I can put my wheelie cart and my cardboard cutting surface out of the way but still easily accessible. I also filled the new drawer unit, lol. The bottom is stuffed full (literally) of my finished amigurumi - shamefully they used to live in a large plastic bag under the table, so it's much better this way. The middle drawer is my sewing WIPS and the top drawer has drafting materials (like tracing kits and whatnot). I also have plans to add a removable bar in between the table legs to hold my roll of drafting paper (this is currently in the works, I just have to get the dowel rod cut). I even have space to store my cardboard for photography and my cutting mat in between the drawer units :) I seriously am thrilled with just this one change so much that it wouldn't matter if the rest of the room was changed yet.

Moving around the room, I made a little ironing board station. The ironing board has always been in this corner, but I hadn't wrangled all the other pressing tools together before (they used to be on the shelf unit by the closet across the room - no good). This metal shelf thing is something I got from another friend who moved and it was sitting empty in a different room - perfect opportunity to use it :) Now I have the iron, starch, water, hams and press cloths all contained. Now my husband doesn't have to toss my hams on my desk when he needs to iron his uniform. The basket under the board is all items that need mending and I figure this can just be a regular fixture as well to keep them all contained. 

Keeping with the organizational theme, I had a large stack of patterns and books from all my thrifting adventures over the past few months that had no home. Once I moved the table out from the wall, I had the perfect amount of room for this little bookcase. I got 2 of these cheapy bookshelves on the side of the road (my neighbor threw them out!) back when we moved - one is holding my cookbooks in our den, but this one has been holding random things in the garage while I decided on its in-house use. It worked perfect here! The pink bins were also free (given to me by a friend), and one has all my embroidery floss and supplies while the other has a few sweaters that are waiting to be unraveled. The shelf top is also perfect for holding other organizers. The middle pic is on the other side of the room next to the ironing board. The steam press is on what used to be a shoe rack - I took the cloth dividers out and I will add wood to make real shelves - and the basket inside it is things I want to alter. The plastic drawer units were a yard sale score - all of them for $2 months ago. I had to clean them and they are older so they are made of slightly harder plastic then is used now, but they are a great size for holding all my sewing tools and notions. I have the drawers all divided and organized so I can go right to what I need. I hope to find nice labels soon to make it even easier :) And the final shot is a close up of the ironing station. I used the lower shelves to hold things I had no place for - like my yarn winder and my box of animal eyes. The shelves are also the perfect width to hold 2 of my WIP project baskets. I snagged these in the dollar spot at Target a while back and they are a great size to keep all my in progress animals together - no more misplacing body parts :)

I couldn't get a good head-on pic of my desk due to the window back lighting, but here is a shot to give you an idea. I thought of a different lamp to use while I was writing this post, so it will change soon, lol, but you get the idea. To the left of the desk is the trash can so I can just swipe threads off at random, and next to that is a tower fan - the ceiling fan groans something awful in this room so I never turn it on. Maybe I'll finally try to fix that...

And with all my organizational changes I decided to finally hang up a few things I've had waiting. My mom got me that mirrored scroll square for Christmas (!) and I only just hung it up - you can't rush, lol. And the little frame is a really cute postcard I bought at Epcot in the Japan store when I was probably 15 - again, you can't rush. I think it looks perfect here, so I'm glad I saved it :) I also re-distributed my books on that little shelf unit. I rearranged/de-junked my étagère. I pulled out Norman, The Giant Squid for a little time in the sunlight. He is still one of my favorite animals, so I'm happy to see him now. And Soepkip is chilling next to The Stylish Nadine and her wig collection, lol. My amigurumi books have spilled over onto the top shelf and the black floral boxes have rattles, squeakers and jinglers (the small one) as well as my fancy/more expensive sewing patterns like Colette and Sewaholic (the bigger one). Also, I finally hung up my inkjet transfer above my thread racks. I made this back when I did experimental photography big time and I just always liked how it came out. It's a photo of a flowering plant taken with a Holga camera, then inkjet transferred onto canvas. The transferring blurred the lines even more than they already were from the original shot, but something about the color combo and composition I have just always liked. I guess since it's "art" I don't have to be able to say why I like it, lol, I just do. Now i get to see it everyday :)

Here's a close up of the Japanese post card - isn't it cute?! I came across it in a box of stuff I've had since I was a kid and the colors worked perfect for this room. I even had this empty frame that it fit in - talk about meant to be :) So now I have a little nod to my day job in my room that still "goes".

Well, I hope you've enjoyed this little tour of my sewing room :) I will admit that there is another wall you haven't seen at all - it's still pretty junked up, lol. I have a large stack of boxes in front of the closet with random supplies and fabric that I haven't found homes for yet. I'm working on it though. I have so much fabric that I will be doing a bit of a purge soon - I'll post here with the link in case anyone would be interested whenever that happens.

I am ridiculously happy with how this room is coming out, and I've already made more plans for its future. One of these days I will make valance boxes over the windows, finish painting the dresser and mirror (it will hold fabric), and hang some shelves and more artwork. It's coming right along though :) And happily I've had most everything I need on hand for the changes I've made, so I don't even have to spend any money. Even with all the things that still need to be done, this is still the most finished room in our house - what does that say about my priorities, lol. I just know I love being in here now, and I really can't wait to really test the configuration and get sewing!

Check My New Étagère

This is a project that has been a while in the making. I started working on this before we moved in, but it quickly got put aside (and completely blocked in by other furniture) when we moved in as I had to make our moving mess livable. After things got a bit more settled, I pulled this out and started up again. I am so thrilled with the results! You'll see why...

I got this étagère on Craig's List months ago for $35. It's solid wood and the shelves are removable. I liked it for its spindly legs and knew it would be perfect in my sewing room ... with the right makeover. Nice as it was, it was just big and dark and opressive - certainly not the vibe I have going in my "zen room" (which is what my husband calls it). So, I decided to make it white.

Look how dinged up it was!

The first step was filling in all the holes and crevaces. It looked great when I bought it, but that was just because the stain was so dark you couldn't see all the imperfections. On a stained piece, the natural nicks and weird spots added to the texture and looked nice, but I knew as soon as I painted it white they would all show up and I didn't want that. If I'm going through all this trouble, I at least want it to look smooth like it was supposed to be that way. So, I brought out the wood putty and started filling.

I seriously spent hours filling, sanding, filling again. Once I thought I had them all filled, I primed it with Kilz Original spray paint. I knew I needed something that would block the stain, especially since it was going to be white and I didn't want it to yellow over time. So, I sprayed. And sprayed, and sprayed. I went through 4 cans of Kilz just on the body of the piece! After the Kilz, I could see a few more imperfections that needed filling, so I just used DryDex spackle and it worked great. I primed over all the spackle spots again when they dried. Kilz spray paint leaves a gritty texture, so I lightly sanded it as best I could - it was really difficult to get around all those spindle pieces.

Next I repeated the filling and priming steps on the shelves. This shelf was the worst - those scratches you see were really deep and much more noticable in person. But they filled in pretty well.

After everything was filled and primed and sanded, I started to spray the actual paint. On my desk I recently did for the same room, I just left it the Kilz white color. I've kind of regretted that choice now that I've used the desk since it tends to look gray-ish sometimes, so with this piece I wanted to use actual paint. I used Rustoleum Ultra Cover 2X spray paint in Flat White on the whole thing. No joke, it took about 6 cans to do the body and the shelves of this piece. I was starting to worry about the cost, but I was so far into it at that point that I had no choice but to keep buying more cans and go with it.

After the paint, I did another light sanding to get it more smooth feeling (again - those rounded pieces are really hard to do that to), and then I coated the whole thing in 2 coats of Minwax Poly-Acrylic spray in Satin finish. I used a whole can of the Minwax, which wasn't cheap, but it's so worth it to have a piece that will hold up to daily use. I would rather spend a little more now than have it get all chipped up and look awful after a few months, you know? Also, the poly-acrylic is water based, so it won't yellow over time.

So, after waiting the full 24 hours so the poly coating could fully adhere, we moved it upstairs (no easy feat!) and put it in its new spot.

I absolutely LOVE how it came out! Sure, there are a few places I wish I had filled better, but you don't notice them unless you are really looking it over and I am ok with that. I do realize that there are no doors on the bottom - I had a hardware removal issue with them so I haven't gotten them painted yet. Those are next on my to-paint list. In the meantime, I didn't wait to fill it up and help house some of my stuff.

Those purple bins aren't staying - they are just what I've used until I find something better. Just for the record. It holds the tv perfectly (it just barely fits and only on that particular shelf) and I love to watch movies while I make things, so I was pleased it worked out so well.

So, how much did this beast cost?

• Étagère - $35
• Wood Putty - I'm calling it free (I bought a tub and have used it on many things around the house)
• DryDex - Again, I'm calling it free
• 6 cans Kilz Original Spray Paint - $34.68
• 6 cans Rustoleum Ultra Cover 2X - $22.62
• 1 can Minwax Poly-Acrylic - $11.97

 Total: $ 104.27

So, it certainly wasn't as cheap as my desk I just did, but it certainly is cheaper than if I went to a furniture store to buy a solid wood étagère (google search if you don't believe me), so I'm happy with the price. I now can't wait to finish not only the doors, but also the rest of the furniture for the room. It's really starting to come together now and I can't wait!