Roadside Rescued, Repurposed and Upcycled Office Storage

by Lynn @ Nourish and Nestle

There's a first time for everything, well most things anyway. Stopping in the rain on a well-traveled road to adopt a discarded and unloved nightstand is a first for me. But, if you read many of my posts, you know I'm a big believer in kismet and spying this neglected piece of furniture on the side of the road was sheer kismet. I'm in the midst of a minor redo of my office and my new desk, while much bigger, does not have drawers for storage that my old desk had. As such, I've been brainstorming how and where to keep my office supplies and when I spied this sad little piece of furniture, I thought he might just fit the bill. d

roadside rescued and up cycled office storage, how to, organizing, painted furniture, storage ideas

'm not sure where this guy has been for the past while, but he clearly had been unloved and out in the elements. The veneer in several spots was gone, the wood was warped and a tribe of roaches had made this nightstand their egg incubator and nursery...a little gross. So after first giving him a good wash down with bleach and water, I went to town. The piece had gotten so wet, that the drawer wouldn't go all the way in when I brought him home. So after cleaning him, I brought him in the house and place him directly over an air vent in the hopes that the air conditioning would dry him out and it did!

My next task was to remove the veneer in the spots where it had partially been removed. I used an iron and a wet cloth to basically steam the glue and the veneer came right up. I'd say I kept the iron on the wet cloth over the veneer for about 30 seconds at a time and then used a putty knife to pry up the veneer.

Then, in places where it could be salvaged, I glued some of the veneer that started to separate from the wood base. I used Elmer's Wood Glue, a paint stick and some clamps.

The next step was to remove the gold feet so that I could prime and paint the wood, as well as the gold feet. I definitely wanted to keep the feet, but they were rusted in spots and needed a good coat of gold spray paint, which just happens to be one of my current favorite things. These feet were a bit of a pain to get off, as the nails were rusted, but with a knife from the kitchen, a putty knife and a pair of pliers, I was able to get them all off.

There were two spots on the top where the wood had separated. I used wood filler and then followed it with a good sanding.

I was anxious to get the primer on to hide all the nasties. I came across XIM 11022 Primer Sealer Bonder last year and it is the bomb! Works great on laminate, covers everything and dries quickly. The only downside is it's potent odor.

Once the primer was dry, I went to town with my black paint. I purchased

BEHR Premium Plus Pure Black Hi-Gloss Enamel Exterior/Interior Paint and used my sponge roller to avoid brush marks on the finish. While at Home Depot for the paint, I wanted to get knobs for the drawer. In my mind, the black gloss finish and gold feet would look masculine and classic, like my little piece was all dressed up in a tuxedo. So of course, I searched for cuff-link looking knobs in gold. The knobs that fit the cuff-link criteria only came in a silver...no fear! Gold Spray Paint to the rescue. I also sprayed the inside of the drawer with the gold paint. There were many stains on the drawer and not only did the gold spay paint cover them, but it also added such nice bling to my tuxedo-clad-nightstand-turned-office-supply-storage!

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2 questions

Linda Werner on Nov 09, 2015
HELP Can I remove the three lower - center drawers without causing any problems with the structure of the dresser? I Want to make this a craft desk/work table with the smaller drawers left in place.

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Jan Chappell Enstrom on Nov 09, 2015
Where do joy buy the XIM primer?

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Cynde Peace on Dec 01, 2015
This is lovely! Good job!

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Chris on Mar 03, 2019

Just love this piece. What a total transformation. Very inspirational

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