I am so excited to show you all just how easy it is to give that old or used crib a makeover!

The minute we found out we were adding a little girl to our family I knew I wanted to take my son’s espresso-finished crib and paint it white. Not that there’s anything wrong with dark-colored wood - it’s just that white furniture just seems so angelic and perfect for a little girl.

Here are the 4 steps I took for our DIY Crib Makeover:

Note: Before you start make sure that the crib you’re giving a makeover is less than 10 years old and that you visit the CPSC to double-check for possible crib recalls.  Click here to visit cpsc.gov.

Get safe paint. Paint that Mommy can use and paint that’s also safe for baby is a must and Lullaby Paints is definitely the way to go. This company truly cares about the health of our babies & our environment. There are no harmful or toxic chemicals in their paints and there are so many fun colors to choose from. I chose Semi-Gloss White (1 quart) which cost me $23. You can also get 4 free color chips for free first if you’re having trouble deciding on a color.

Prep Work: Sanding. Our crib was already disassembled since we just moved into our house so we took each piece out to the front yard and lightly sanded it with medium grit sandpaper (180#). I made sure to wear a mask so I didn’t inhale any dust. It’s not imperative that you take apart the crib, just make sure you can get it back in the house and through the doorways fully assembled so you don’t have to take it apart and risk scratching it’s soon-to-be new paint job! Once we finished sanding we removed the leftover dust on the crib with a tack cloth.

Painting. We cleared out our garage and placed cardboard down everywhere. We had so many boxes left over from moving so this worked out perfectly. You could also use a plastic or cloth drop-cloth or even newspaper in lieu of the cardboard boxes. Next, we took some old paint cans and balanced each piece on top so it would be off the ground. Once everything was set up, we grabbed a high-quality nylon brush set and started to paint!

This entire project was done with just me (7 months pregnant) and my Mom (65 years young) so we decided to split up the painting over 2 days in order to not overdo it. We did 2 coats (letting it dry 2 hours between) the first day and then flipped everything over and did 2 coats the following day. That night…we got to see it all come together!

Assembly. After the paint dried we sweet-talked my hubby into carrying all the crib pieces up to the baby’s room and had him assemble everything.

OMG it looked so awesome!

He accidentally chipped the paint in a few places when he assembled the crib so I put down an old shower curtain and moved the crib on top to do a little touch up. (It was really cool to be able to do this inside since there’s no odor to this paint). The next day I dressed up the crib and voila! My baby girl now has a beautiful crib that she can call her own.

This was such a rewarding project for me and it was made even more special since my Mom (aka Grandma) was able to help me.

If I can do this at 7 months pregnant, ANYONE can do it!

The total cost for the paint, brushes, and sandpaper was about $35 and the result is PRICELESS!