My 19th Century Dresser!

I'm so flipping excited with how well this dresser turned out.  It was my first time using modge podge, but overall it went well!  I got this idea from Miss Mustard Seed and her sheet music dresser.  Then I found a book at Goodwill for $2.50 with all the famous 19th century photojournalism pictures in it! 

Anyways! I finally finished this after it sat in my garage for nearly a year!  I got the dresser at a garage sale down the street for $15!  Score!  It was truly and actually an old Army Officer's Dresser which TOTALLY adds to the character of it all!  I've been told I could see this for upwards of $300+, but I'm so in love with it that it's not going anywhere but my craft room for me to "oooh" & "aww" over!  :)

Oh, and US history is my favorite thing to learn about and so I know what 95% of the pictures are from! :)

BEFORE...

 AFTER!!!

 What do you think?!  Does anyone love it as much as I do?!  :D

Ok... here was my process!

First, it was pretty old, so I did a decent cleaning and wiping down and tightening of some screws!

 

*This is a close up of the Army ?plaque? that was on the front.  The lady at the garage sale told me it's been in her family for generations and that it was actually an Army Officer's dresser in WWII! (Now, who knows if that's actually true, but I'd like to believe it is!)

Then I primed it and once that dried, spray painted it with Krylon Ivory.

After all the painting was done, I sanded the edges to give it an antiqued look! 

  

This is the book I found at Goodwill for $2.50.  When I saw it there, I knew EXACTLY what I wanted to do with it!

  

After I cut out all the pictures I wanted to try and use (there were some that didn't make the final cut), I organized them to the way I wanted them on the dresser!  I then Modge Podged them on.  I did this based off Miss Mustard Seed's tutorial on her blog.

  

After all of this, I then used a dark walnut wood stain to wipe on and wipe off (immediately) to give the dresser an old aged wood look! I then let the stain dry for 24 hours just to be sure!  (I did not put stain on the pictures, FYI.)

....and VIOLA!

  

(*oh!  I also bought new knobs on clearance at Hobby Lobby for $2/each since the old ones were missing and falling off!)

  

 

Here is a close up of all the pictures I put on it!

  

Do you recognize any or all of them?!

 

So...what do you think?!

I'm in love with it...