Nightstands

Wellll, I was on a roll, and had a smidgin of paint left, so I decided to transform my two ugly ol' nightstands. I've had these since graduating college. I got them at ShopKo and my dad and I knocked them together in my little Seattle apartment.

They've served me well but they are ugly. More of that mission style that I can't stand.

So I took my $1 garage sale saw and chopped out the slats on the sides (I would have knocked them out with a hammer, but I wanted to see if I could use them for another project.) The little curved decorative thingamajigs on the sides, I did just knock off.

Here's the new silhouette:

I used a hand-sander to smooth out the rough edges.

I used this Elmer's ProBond Wood Filler to patch the holes.The directions say to push it in with a putty knife, but I don't have one, so I just smushed it in with my fingers. I'm a rebel without a putty knife.

Once the filler had dried, I used a hand-sander once again to smooth out the bumpy surfaces. Then it was time to prime.

Here's one of my favorite painting hacks: put a plastic shopping bag (which are increasingly hard to come by here in Washington State) inside your paint tray. That way you can reuse the tray and just toss the bag when you're done. Just make sure you put the bag print-side down, or it could pull off and get into your paint.

I primed with Kilz Original, two coats.

Then I painted with two coats of my favorite: Valspar's Caribbean Walk. This is the same paint I used on my $10 vanity, my free coffee table, and my $75 hutch.

After the paint was dry I sealed the top surface of the nightstands with two coats of Minwax's water based polycrylic sealer.

I like the original drawer pulls, so I put them back on.

Here's the finished product, back in my bedroom:

And here's the before and after:

Before                                             After

 Just for fun, here's a look at my bedroom, the first night I slept in my new house:

And here it is now:

I love the changes! And don't worry, I still have the puppy dog, but she felt like she was having a bad hair day and didn't want to be in the "after" photo.

<3 Cara