Awhile back I did a post of the kids’ dresser that I was building. That project got put on the back burner for a while as I prepared for the Architectural Home Design Show. Last month was spent following up from the show and finishing this project and some others. So let me tell you a little about this dresser:
In recent years there have been many studies about the effects of off gassing formaldehyde from man made wood products such as MDF and Chip Board and other materials. The effects can be harmful to most people. What was really scary to me was the amount if these materials that was being used in Children’s furniture. My older son and I sleep in regular beds, but my younger son was in a crib. To think that he is laying there every afternoon for a nap and every evening to sleep while the MDF crib is off gassing made me sick.
So I have set out to design a line of children’s furniture that is Eco-friendly. The first piece of this line is this kids’ dresser. This dresser is made from FSC certified plywood, from a company that has changed it’s glue formulas to exclude all formaldehyde based glues and introduced a proprietary soy based glue. This eliminates the off gassing problem from the plywood part of the furniture.
We didn’t stop there the paint used on the outside of the dresser is Old Fashioned Milk Paint. This is a paint that is made from Milk Proteins and natural pigments. There are absolutely no VOC’s in this paint. We are exploring a few other options out there for paint to be able to increase the choice of colors. The Orange is chalkboard paint from Hudson Paints. The chalkboard paint gives some great contrast as well as makes the piece fun for the kids. They can actually drawer all over the dresser and not ruin the finish.
The handles are a piece of rope pulled through the drawers and tied into knots on the end. Once again just a playful idea and cute design for a childs room.
Finally, I enlisted the help of good friend and painter Dalyn Montgomery to do something special. I had Dalyn paint a sea turtle scene on the sides of the drawers. I thought what a great little surprise for the children when they pull open the drawers to have something they like on the sides.
This dresser is completely customizable to your needs. The sizes can be customized as can the paint colors, the drawer handles and the drawer theme. All the drawers use what are called slow motion self close drawer slides. What are these you might ask? They are drawer slides that when pushed close, stop before the drawer is all the way shut and then slowly pull themselves closed. Thus making it virtually impossible for a little one to slam their fingers in the drawers.
We are very proud of the first piece in this line of furniture. Next few pieces we have planned are a toy chest, nightstand, bookcase and single and bunkbeds.
Summer is just around the corner and the lead time for this dresser is 4-6 weeks, if you want to place an order and have it before you child starts school in the fall, order soon.
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