Nightstands Get a Face-lift

Andrea Palmai
by Andrea Palmai
7 Materials
$50
2 Days
Easy

I was given these 2 night stands to give them a makeover! They were repainting the bedroom and wanted the night stands to go with the new decor without spending money on new night stands. These are very traditional pieces, something you might have in your home. With a little paint and stain you can easily refresh them.

Have a plan


I knew I wanted the body of the piece a light grey color and was going to paint it with chalk paint but I also wanted to expose some of the natural wood as this was a solid wood piece. So I sanded down the top and the drawer with 120,220,320 sand paper grit.

Top and drawers sanded down
Sand


Once the top and drawers were sanded down I applied grey general finishes gel stain. I tried minwax penetrating stain first but it didn't give me the more intense grey color I wanted. I don't know maybe if I applied another coat or two it would have worked but I had gel stain on hand so I went with that.

Stain and paint


Once the body and the tops were done I was going to do some stripes on the front of the drawers. I taped them with painters tape.

Cut out design
Add something special


I used a detailed knife to cut the design into the tape. You just need to apply enough pressure to cut the tape and not scratch the wood. But since I was going to paint the cutout it probably would have been ok because the paint would have covered it.

Add clear coat


Once it was all done I applied a spray on polycrilyc clear coat on the tops as well as the painted parts. I spray painted the original pulls black and also applied a polycrilyc clear coat on that.

Now these night stands will go perfectly with the current decor! You can save a lot of money by updating your furniture that is out dated, wrong color, wrong style, so you can get that flat screen TV you have been eyeballing. If you like this transformation follow me on Instagram @andreapalmai for real time tips and tricks.

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  2 questions
  • Db Db on Feb 13, 2021

    Very nice! Have to ask though why you didn’t prime? I have heavy end tables with a dark color I want to paint but I’m worried about bleed thru.

  • Judy Mears Judy Mears on Oct 25, 2022

    Were these night stand wood or particle board?? And why did you not primer??? How did you seal your paint job???

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