How I Updated Our Nightstands

When we decided to take on this remodel, I knew we were going to keep our nightstands but that I was going to have to zhuzh 'em up.  We have Schmate and Schmarrel night stands and while they're a little more modern than I probably would've liked with this project, I thought I could strip the tops and stain them.  Boy was I in for a surprise.

That right there is called MDF.  Yep.  Those nightstands we had to wait 8 weeks for to be hand painted in Italy over 10 years ago is really nothing more than overpriced IKEA.  You wanna know what they charge for one now?  $500!  I think we paid $100 less then but still, if I'd known we were paying for MDF, I wouldn't have gotten them.  That meant my plan for stain was out the door.  I could've used gel stain but that was a poop show when I tried it, it stunk on the sample piece and I couldn't have that smell right by my head.  I intended for these to be the first project I did because it seemed like it would be easy but it ended up being one of the last projects.  Like much of the remodel, I put my faith in the Retique It product line with mixed results depending on the project.  Given I didn't have the time or patience to deal with anything more than slapping a paint like substance on something, that was going to have to do.  

I originally planned to tie those in with an updated paint job on an armoire I had and stain the tops and repaint the rest white.  When I had the bright idea to strip the paint, the beautiful 'scroll work' on the front was not wood...it was resin.  An internet search showed that was usually the work of 60's/70's pieces and you know, I probably just exposed us to lead paint.  It was impossible to scrape off and the leg was broken when the ceiling guys moved it so we chucked it.  Now these nightstands were literally going to be the only pieces of actual storage like furniture in the room.  

No pressure.

Here's how they started out:  

The only mod I made to them was changing out the knobs when we got them.  Over time, me basically being a careless slob meant spills of essential oils or crap I couldn't identify that ate through little spots of the clear coat with one going down to the 'wood.'  I cleaned off the top well and it was time to get to work.  First step was primer so that I could seal over the spot I sanded off and the other parts that had gone through paint.

It took two coats and I did a light sanding with 800 grit sandpaper to even out any strokes from the sponge application and wiped it down.  I used Retique It Wood n Stain Dark Walnut which I don't even know if they make that color anymore because it hasn't been in stock anywhere for over a month.  Sure hope I don't need a touch up to my wall or nightstands.  😖  I used a Wooster foam brush for a smoother finish and got to it.

I didn't want something quite as solid as the board and batten wall but was hoping maybe two coats would give me the look I wanted but no dice.  I knew I'd need a light third coat to get the color I wanted without it going completely solid.  I didn't have the overlap problems I had with board and batten and I think that's because it was a much smaller area to work on so the paint wouldn't get completely dry if I had to go over a spot.  I knew I wanted to fake an inlay on it with some European Gold Rub n Buff but I wanted to seal that first.  I used the Tripletique Poly that I got in a kit I hadn't used and applied it with a sponge after a quick sanding to knock down wood boogers from the paint product.  (See board and batten post for wood booger definition.)    I applied three coats of that.

It was too cold at the time to do any of that stuff in the garage so I was thankful for that product so I could do it in the basement.  Thankfully almost zero fumes and a satin finish regardless of how many coats.

I had 5 vintage gold drawer pulls that I was going to put on the armoire but then that got kicked to the curb.  (They arrived the day after we had to give up on the armoire in a nice twist of the cosmic comic strip that is our life.)  I decided they could look really good on the nightstands but I'd need to fill in the hole with wood filler before painting.  I filled them to the top and smoothed it out so it was perfectly level with the rest of the drawer and let them dry.

Then I knew I wanted to paint the interior panels of the drawer fronts the same as the top.  I got some blue painters tape and as I went to adjust it, it ripped off one of the 'distressed' areas they did on the original piece.  (Which I hate by the way but getting rid of it meant repainting the whole thing.  Even though that was my original plan, that was when I had hope and I was at the "are we effing done?" phase.)  Okay, as long as no more came off, I'd be good.  Grabbed the delicate surface painters tape.  Pulled more off.  Oh, so the original store distressed it but never sealed it so it could just flake off with age?  Aces.

Pivot.  

That's going to be the name of the novel of this whole project:

(There is not ONE project in this whole damn thing that has gone off without a hitch.)

I would love to just paint over what was pulled off but I don't have that color laying around so I guess instead of just painting the middle panel, I was now going to have to paint the whole drawer front which I knew had the potential to look very bad.  There are some angles and it was going to be hard to get in some places and make strokes look good, etc.  But I had no other choice so I trudged on.  I did three coats and guess who forgot to put a dab of primer over the DARK wood filler with the surrounding panel being white?  Mmm hmm.  So a nice little dot showed through and I had to put a light 4th coat over that and try to blend it in so it wasn't the first thing you saw when you looked at the drawer.  I was at the 'good enough' phase and was giving up on anything close to perfection.  "Does it open/close and hold stuff?  Yes?  Done."  I put some poly over the drawers but wasn't crazy about how it looked because it definitely showed more paint like because of the crevices and such that I was initially worried about but I had other things to tackle while that dried.

Remember I mentioned I wanted to fake an inlay?  Well, I bought this set of tapes to be able to tape off and hopefully make a thin stripe around the top.  

So I used the 1/2" tape and lined it up to the edges of the table top.  

Then I laid down the thin pinstripe I would need to make the inlay, then the other 1/2" tape lined up against it so I'd have something to create the line.

I carefully peeled back the thinnest tape and used a cut off square rag and European Gold Rub n Buff to rub over the line of exposed night stand.

I said a few prayers and slowly peeled back the other two lines of tape.

It wasn't perfect which tracks on this entire project.  I would use a straight edge ruler to go back and straighten any wonky bits and we both really liked how it turned out.  When it dried the next day, I put a final coat of poly on it since it was a high traffic area it was going to be on.

Now that the drawers had dried, I wanted to get a layer of Rub n Buff on the upper and lower portions of the inset panel for a little flair.  Nothing over the top but it needed something.  I carefully painted it on and let it dry overnight.

I lightly buffed out any chunks of wax left over which is supposed to set it.  Since it shouldn't get much touch wise, I didn't seal it.  

Finally, time for the handles.  When the knobs were still in, with the Mr's help, I made the jankiest of janky templates to figure out how to center the new handles.  Of course they were a weird size like 4 11/16" and the template I bought on Amazon for the occasion was worthless because I thought they were 4 1/2".  I had some sheets of thin craft foam and I cut a template to fit the inside of the drawer then pressed in on the knob screw making an imprint of it.  Then I took a different piece of foam and made an imprint of where the screw holes were on the handles.  The Mr measured and got them taped for me so we could slide the template into the back of the drawers and make our marks where the handle screws would be.  I don't recommend doing a template this way but it basically is par for the course on how we get shizz done.

I marked the insides of the drawers with our template and of course the 1" brand new screws stripped, the handle ornament on one turned and made a lovely little mark on the drawer front and one of the screw heads literally twisted OFF.  People...our renos are like Monty Python skits.  But here's how it looked when it was finished with the vintage pulls on.

Ze before and after:

(The drawers are not that dark!  The lighting sucks in the basement.)

I did go back after that pic and put some Rub n Buff on the front ledge because I was debating doing it but after a glass of wine, I was like "efffff it!" and went to town.  I really like how it came out.

You don't even really see it head on, only if light is coming in.

Did it go to plan?  

Are you new here?  (aka- no...it did not go to plan which is the common theme for every damn step of this stupid idea of mine from night stands to shelving to mounting the TV.  All of it.  Absolutely crap fest from beginning to the bitter end.)  

They look about like I thought but not overly thrilled with the drawer fronts because the knob hole wood filler that isn't supposed to shrink, shrunk.  I didn't notice until it was too late and I don't care enough to fix it because no one is going to see it except the Mr and I.  So if you ever fill in holes. make sure to check that the filler didn't pull back and needs to be topped off.  I'm glad I was able to use the vintage pulls I got for the armoire on this project and I do think it compliments it well to give a bit more traditional look to modern nightstands.  

Ultimately, I'd like to find some vintage ones or some that don't cost a car or house payment a piece but these are perfectly fine.  I might paint the interiors of them in the future this pretty deep moss color I found since the interiors are light blue.  If I get real ambitious and can find the right cream colored paint I wanted to use initially to get rid of that horrible fake looking 'distressing' the "high end" store did to it over in Italy I'll consider it but that's totally a boredom project for a time when my mental state recovers some decade.

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