Nightstands and Dressers and Jewelry... Oh My!

When we moved out here, we were determined to buy new, and not become Craigslist addicts again. The determination lasted us through three trips to big box furniture stores, after which we determined that we were still, in fact, going to use Craig and his list. Yes, there is time and money involved in making over our secondhand finds, but when compared to the cost of purchasing new... well, we just couldn't do it. The time spent refinishing things is well worth the savings. So - you could say we are back to our old ways. :)

Throughout our months at the apartment, Lover and my nightstands consisted of a cardboard box and a rubbermaid tote. Although the aesthetics were lacking, they served the intended purpose just fine, and surprisingly reminded me a little of our newlywed days when we owned one nightstand, a janky dresser and a "couch" made out of twin mattress, six rubbermaid totes and a bunch of pillows. Ah, nostalgia.

Anyways, I was on a mission to get us some nightstands before the baby came, so when a set of two nightstands and a small dresser turned up on CL for $25, I was sold. We trekked out that night and loaded up the van with our finds, after making small talk for a few minutes with the gentleman who was selling the furniture. He wished us good luck with "that" with an awkward gesture towards my very pregnant belly, which kept us laughing all the way home.


So these nightstands are just a simple pressboard construction, nothing particularly fancy or special about them. Someone had previously slapped a coat of burgundy paint on them and, how do I say this nicely, they had done a ... subpar job of it.



See how there is just one uneven, gloppy coat on there? Yeah. Not so special. So I set to work making these babies prettier. I wiped everything down with some hot water and vinegar, and then put a quick coat of primer on all of the surfaces. With primer your goal is not to get complete opaque coverage, but rather a consistent coat that will help your paint adhere to the previous surface. It looks weird, but it gets the job done.



Then I did two coats of gray paint (same stuff we used on our walls) with a third touchup coat in a few little spots. I purchased a small foam roller for this project and it worked really well, making the job go much faster and I got really smooth, even coverage with it.

Being in Colorado means that there is a lot less humidity, and so paint cures much quicker and harder than it did in Rochester. But I still waited several days after everything was dry to make sure the paint was really curing well before I brought them inside. There's nothing I hate more than finishing a piece and bringing it in to use it, just for it to flake or chip or stick to something. So I exerted all my willpower and made myself wait - even though I was chomping at the bit to get them in the room.



Because there wasn't really anything interesting about these nightstands, I went with a fun knob for the drawers. Hobby Lobby makes so many cool knobs for under $5 a piece - I think these were $3.99 each and were probably on sale for half off, since most of their store is usually on sale. :) These little chalkboard thought bubbles were fun and tied in the turquoise. I used a chalk marker to write "MR" on Lover's side and MRS on mine.I still need to find a basket that fits better on my side since I don't have a shelf like Lover does.



Then I turned my attention to finding a dresser for our room. I had a few criteria - long versus tall, light wood, and not requiring a ton of work, since I was about a month from my due date at this point.

After a few weeks of (im)patient searching, I found just the right thing. Long, light stain, and the price was right at $50. It looked to be in pretty good condition too. We drove down to pick it up, and the seller even let me have it for $40. Hurray! When I'm buying dressers secondhand, I've learned to look for a few things - solid wood wherever possible, since dressers take a lot of abuse, functioning drawers and overall condition. If it's covered in stickers or goop or something, it's probably not worth my time to fix it up, unless it's dirt cheap. Thankfully this dresser was only slightly worn on the top, and after looking it over I determined that I could refinish the top pretty easily.



I purchased an orbital sander for this project, and oh my goodness, how did I not know what I was missing out on? This baby is awesome for a quick, even sanding. I loved it. I used various grits of sandpaper to take out all the stains and scuffs in the finish on the top of the dresser, and finished with a high grit to smooth everything back out. This probably took me about half an hour - simple and easy.


I ended up having to take the top back down to the bare wood to get all the stains out. Which meant I needed to whitewash the top to get it to match the finish on the rest of the dresser. I put about a tablespoon of white paint in a cup and mixed it with about a cup of water, and then brushed it over the top in long strokes. Because the paint is so transparent, any touch up strokes are really visible, so try to avoid that when possible.



The kids also worked hard here painting a scrap board we had on hand. They loved it and it kept them busy for quite a while. Here's what the top looked like after the whitewash. Pretty darn close match, right?



I finished the process up with three coats of poly, sanding between coats to get a really smooth finish. Then Lover and a friend brought it upstairs to our room since apparently its not a good idea to carry super heavy furniture when you're preggers.



Looking good, right? It fits really nicely on that wall, and gave us tons of room for clothes. A couple of the drawers are actually empty. :) As you can see, the dresser came with a big old heavy mirror which fills up that wall nicely. And lastly, I hung up all my jewelry on the wall. I love having it hung up as "art" and when it's on display like this I tend to wear it all more.



So that's the story of how we are living like grownups again with our clothes in dressers and nightstands next to our bed. :) Our bedroom feels comfortable and functional, and the rest (art, little personal touches, etc) will come with time. It's a good start!