first nest(4)

Lauren modernized her great-grandparents’ dresser with fresh white paint and new hardware she found in a sale basket at Anthropologie. “Suddenly it was this great statement piece,” observes Suzanne. Like everything else in the apartment, the dresser is hardworking. The top three drawers store Lauren’s clothing, while lower drawers contain a mishmash of everything from large-scale kitchen platters to linens.

Neither Lauren nor her mom is out to incite envy, but Lauren does confess to loving it when her friends flip for her old cane-sided chair--one of a pair found on Craigslist for $25, total. Lauren painted the “really ugly pink” chair black, upholstered it in inexpensive fabric, and trimmed it with scraps of brown velvet. “The brown velvet piping gives it a little luxe look,” she says. “It’s probably the most inexpensive thing here, but all my friends say, ‘Oh my gosh. Where did you get this chair?’ ”

Sources:
Cane-sided chair: Craigslist.
Black paint for cane chairs: Ralph Lauren Paint, 800/379-7656, ralphlaurenhome.com.
Cane-chair fabric: dressmaker’s cloth with brown velvet piping.
White dresser: family heirloom.
Dresser hardware: Anthropologie, 800/309-2500, anthropologie.com.