chest of drawers revamp

I have this chest of drawers that makes me cringe every time I walk into my daughter Ella's room. With a shabby chic white chassis and baby pink drawers, this item's 90s kitsch coup de grâce is its button handles with handpainted love hearts.

Despite my teeth grinding over how dated these drawers look, I can still look at them with much fondness... I remember sanding and lovingly painting them for Ella when I was pregnant, over 10 years ago now. Of course, I loved them then - but I've been majorly hankering to update this baby into something a little more towards the hip end of the design scale.

As Ella has developed an obsession with horses that's not going anywhere any time soon, I've been racking my brains for a horse motif that might stand the test of time and not have me running, screaming, for the paint pot again by the time she turns 11.

It was during one of my frequent bouts of oohing and ahhing over the vintage wallpapers of Florence Broadhurst that I knew exactly what to use.

Can you believe how stunning? Horses Stampede in Cinnarbar is just the ticket for a piece of furniture nestled firmly in the tween years - between horse obsession and teendom. I love it.

My only issue now is finding a piece small enough to paper the front face of each drawer. Wallpaper suppliers like to sell by the roll ($280!) not the metre, so this is difficult, and wallpaper samples are only A4 in size, with no full pattern repeat.

I've tried printing and matching patterns found on the internet, however the repeat isn't quite complete and hand-drawing this masterpiece is out of the question. So I guess it's back to the drawing board for now.

Ella was busy sanding the drawers last weekend, and the entire piece is now ready and waiting with a coat of slick white paint and round, matt silver handles. All we need now is a stampede.

Watch this space.