Neighbors Roadside Trash Nightstand
2 Materials
$20
3 Days
Easy
I was shocked to walk outside one morning to see my neighbor had thrown this away, he knows I redo furniture. Maybe he thought I’d just see it and rescue it, and I did.
it wasn’t in to bad of shape. Needed a little glue and wood filler and definitely a coat or two of chalk paint.
I began by cleaning the nightstand with Tsp. This is an awesome cleaner for furniture it gets all the funky grease and grime and funky stuff off. Once it dried I got out my little electric sander with 100 grit sandpaper and smoothed her out. Cleaned her again with a damp rag.
I Sanded the inside of the drawer also to get rid of stains. Most of them came out no problem. I then took gorilla wood glue along the front of the drawer due to it trying to come apart, clamped it together to stay And used wood filler to close the small gap. The side of the cabinet also looked as if it were separating. So I glued it also and applied stainable wood filler by mini wax to both the drawer front and side of cabinet.
i sanded both areas after it dried and smoothed it out. I used 80 grit sandpaper on this area. Blew it off with my handy leaf blower god it helps get sanding dust off very well. Wiped it down with a damp rag. I was sure I wanted to paint it gray but not sure on anything else.
This is the top, I went with homemade chalk paint. It’s a paint and primer in one from Walmart In a flat finish. I mix it with calcium Carbonate. Which is a paint additive to give you the chalky look. I take a mason jar and put about a 1/4 cup of the calcium carbonate and add warm water until it’s the consistency of sour cream. I then pour into another mason jar with my paint & primer in one, stir and shake it very well until mixed. Then start painting. I added 2 coats of paint to this nightstand. i stood back and didn’t know what else to do. I knew it needed more.
I pondered for a few hours and thought dry brush it with lighter gray and add your appliqués with air dry clay. So I got out my molds which I’ve ordered off Etsy and sprinkled a little corn starch in them and used paper clay to make my appliqués. Very easy and you can apply them almost immediately using wood glue and a little piece of painters tape until dried completely.
While I was waiting for the appliqués to dry a little I used another gray chalk paint I already had mixed up and began dry brushing the whole nightstand. I dipped my smallest pain’t brush into the light gray paint dab excess off and just random went to painting.
I left it to dry and went ahead and painted the hardware the same light gray as I used to dry brush and glued my appliqués on.
I then applied water based polycrylic to the entire nightstand including the hardware and appliqués. And this is it all finished.
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3 of 7 comments
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Looks great! Came out perfect. Good job.
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Thank you!!
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Sorry, this isn’t a question, I just wanted to let you know, where we live in Florida, people put stuff out on the street, and it’s up for grabs! You grab what you want before trash day! I have rescued several things! When we were moving, we’d put stuff out, and it wasn’t long before it was gone-and not in the trash trucks! It’s just and everyday thing here! And if I see something I know my neighbor, who fixes things, I will let him know, and he will go and get it! I walk a three block street twice a day with my dog! Just a fun bit of info for you!
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Excuse me if I ask foolish questions but I'm just a new-be refinishing funiture and I am so anxious to learn it all. What does the calcuim carbonate do? I'm confused about the drawer. You said you sanded the inside and later you said you glued it all around. Did you glue it shut or just glue the front piece of wood down? Why did you "dry brush" two additional coats of paint and what is dry brushing? Where the 2 other coats of paint chalk paint too? Was it just to get the desired color?