Secondhand Baby: Resurecting the Jenny Lind

A couple of summers ago my dad and I went on a road trip up the East Coast.  Since he would be trekking east in the Suburban, I requested that he bring all of my baby furniture that had been stored in the attic for a few decades.  Keeping things quirky (like we do), he immediately initiated assembly in the front yard just to make sure that all furniture had arrived with its appropriate hardware.  A nursery in the front yard?  Why not?  This is how my old Jenny Lind crib showed up:

 

And since it had a bazillion fancy spindles covered in filth, we quickly took it apart again, and bagged it up for storage in my attic until it would be needed someday in the future. 

 

Two years later, the time came to tackle the dreaded attic grunge.  Dad insisted that I use furniture wax, but I felt uncomfortable coating my daughter's multi-functioning bed/teether in something that I wouldn't feed her from a spoon.  Be warned: this is just the tip of the crunchy-granola-mom-to-be iceberg.  

Walking through my kitchen one night, I laid eyes on the quart-sized mason jar full of coconut oil that sits next to my oven for regular use.  A light bulb went off!  I could clean and shine the crib with an organic, food grade substance and hopefully achieve the same effect as furniture wax.  Low and behold, it worked fantastically!

The rest of the pictures are mostly off topic...nevertheless, enjoy the photo evidence of my nesting process: