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Hello! I'm Suzannah, a serious DIYer and mom of two little ones. Follow along with my DIY fixer upper house renovations, sewing and crafty projects, real food recipes, and de-stressing goals.
I believe you can love your home just the way it is, AND have the power to design and make big changes to make it better.
I'm also the author of DIY Wardrobe Makeovers!

We've painted a LOT of furniture lately.

Get ready for lost of house posts this week! Have lots to share with you. With all the house projects and decorating going on, and with rushing for the housewarming party a few weeks ago, we've painted a LOT of cheap furniture lately. Particularly nightstands. ;)

I shared the little table spray paint project I did and am very happy with, but we had such a shortage of horizontal surfaces, as my parents like to say (usually in reference to collecting clutter...) that I seriously had my lamp on the floor next to the bed, and my books and magazines and glasses all splayed out next to it, which was seriously annoying. The guest room was depressingly empty, and there was nowhere near the front door for a lamp or place to put a purse... all of which sort of leads to feeling like your life is in chaos and the simplest things are missing. ;)

So I went a little Craigslist crazy in the weeks before the move and the housewarming party, and found the following scores...

This little night stand for $5. Broken handle, but I spray-primed it (just in case, old surface...), spray painted it white, and gave it some new handles from Fred Meyer. Not sure where it'll go in the end, but for now it sits near the front door and has a lamp on it. We have a little corner it fits perfectly into until we get the perfect shoe-taking-off bench!

I actually bought the $5 nightstand for use as a nightstand, but went back and forth on what to use for our nightstands and the nightstand in the guest room. Then I found this matching set of nearly identical little nightstands on Craigslist for $30. I do like matching nightstands!!

So I bought 'em, washed 'em down with TSP, and spray painted them this pretty pale green pistachio color. I wanted pale minty aqua, but there are only so many choices of Krylon spray paint, and I didn't have time for real-painting and the surface was so smooth, I didn't want brush strokes. I wanted a really pale color, so pistachio it is!! The bedroom colors aren't nailed down yet, anyway. I also added some gold spray paint to the handles to freshen them up and cover up the chipping ivory paint in some of the dips. Here's mine...

Husband has, erm, styled his a little differently than mine... at least the lego storm trooper alarm clock is white, matches everything else, haha!

So now we have matching nightstands in the bedroom! And an extra in the downstairs, it turns out.

Also not really knowing what exactly I wanted it for, I bought an Ikea Rast dresser on Craigslist for $10--I love all the DIYs out there for this little lightweight wooden dresser. Inspired by this Apartment Therapy Rast makeover and this Design*Sponge one and loads of others, I wanted to do the two-tone look and rather than stain the pine, I used some dark brown paint we had left over from an old dresser-painting project. And used the high gloss white of the baseboards, and bought some little gold knobs... and voila!!


It looks great in the guest room. I love Rast dressers as nightstands--the straight lines are so simple and elegant... (in our lovely guest room currently on Apartment Therapy in the Room for Color Contest! "Favorite" it to vote for me! ;) )

Phew, lots of painting--but it's so great to be able to transform bargain pieces with paint and handles and make them fresh and new!!

16 comments

  1. Wow! Great work! They all turned out great! It actually gave me some great ideas for my new house.

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  2. Those nightstands all look like part of my childhood bedroom set, which I inherited from my mother. I think they were a big deal in the 60s. - Leah

    leahwise.wordpress.com

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  3. they look amazing! this post has given me some inspiration on doing restoration work on similar pieces.

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  4. It's amazing what a little paint can do to change a piece of furniture! I love how all of these turned out - great work!

    Callie
    www.coffeeandcardigans.com

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  5. Such cute overhauls of little nightstands! I have a dresser that's been mine since I was a little girl that I've been wanting to repaint, but I've been afraid to. I think it's time to experiment! Would you suggest spray paint as the easiest to use?

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    1. That would be great! Yeah, spray paint is SUPER easy and fast. I'd say wash it down with TSP, then if it needs a primer to even it out, give it a coat of spray primer. Then a can of spray paint! Fred Meyer has a ton of colors.

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  6. Those look GREAT. Much better than our painting experiment. We must have needed to spray paint instead. Did you use a coating on the outside to avoid scratching at all?

    We are going back to the drawing board on our paint jobs. When we have time that is!

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    1. Thanks! Yeah, spray paint is very fast, works well for smooth surfaces. I didn't put anything over the top since it seemed to cling pretty well, but they do make clear coats.

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  7. Great finish. Soft colors like this mint color always catch my attention.

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  8. Soooo, what kind of paint do you use for your furniture? I am totally nesting right now (due with my second child pretty soon!!!) and needing to paint some things!

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    1. Cool! I used regular spray paint and spray primer for the first three nightstands, and high gloss interior paint for the wood nightstand over a coat of spray primer. Regular paint will do fine if you prep right beforehand!

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  9. Nice work! I love projects like this. I just wrapped up a DIY project for my new dining room. Paining may require tons of patience, but it's so worth it!

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  11. Anonymous12/04/2012

    Soft colors look great! I'm thinking if I'm gonna incorporate some of your desings in my apartment in legaspi village!

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  12. chi castic3/15/2013

    I always love soft colours... Infact my bedroom interior is also of soft colour

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