Painting Furniture – Nightstand Before & After

04/19/2011

We bought this little nightstand dresser 2 years ago at a yard sale. At the time we didn’t know where to put it. We can’t fit a nightstand like this in our bedroom and we already had end tables in our living room. It moved into the spare room to sit in waiting for our future kids. Over a year ago, Glidden was giving away free quarts of paint. I ordered Granny Apple green with this night stand in mind. Then, 2 weekends ago I FINALLY got around to standing and painting it. (It felt SO GOOD to get that of my to-do list after being on there for months.)

The top had a bunch of knicks and dings in it but look at the cute flowered contact paper inside the drawers! That stays.

The first order of business was to take off these hideous handles. Have you ever seen anything like this? It looks like it was hand-crafted by drunk termites.

After I got those suckers off, I filled the screw holes with wood filler. Here’s the part where I begin to just wing it. Jason usually does this kind of stuff and I just supervise. I followed the direction the tube and waiting for it to dry a bit, then sanded it. I started sanding the dresser top and the drawer fronts too. That got old really quick.

Thankfully, paint covers and fills most minor scratches. I did give the whole thing a rough sand so the paint would stick better and then wiped it clean with a damp cloth. The first coat of paint didn’t cover very well. I did my best not to have a bunch of drips (again, Jason usually does this kind of project. I am NOT a perfectionist!) I wasn’t concerned about our old patio table because it’s sagging and it’s going to be replaced this summer when we build a new one. I waited a few hours for the first coat to dry (while I went on to paint the chalkboard door). The second coat covered much better.

I let the nightstand rest and cure for a full week before I put anything on it. Even after that, I put a semi-heavy boom box on it and the next day it was stuck. Thankfully it didn’t leave a mark when I pulled it off. I wonder how much longer it needs to cure. Anyone? Or maybe it needs a clear coat?

I was going to buy new knobs but Jason reminded me that we had some in the tool box from IKEA years ago. (I can’t even remember what we used these for originally.) We had 4 so I decided to do 2 on each drawer. I’m very happy with how it turned out and pretty darn proud of myself for doing this all on my own. (Color is more accurate above… the flash here makes it look more yellowish than it is.)

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12 Comments | Art, Art: before & after, Art: interior design, Art: kids room, Art: mcm thrift store find, Art: mid-century design, Art: modern design | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

Before & After: Little Birdie Planter

01/03/2011

A quick before and after post to start out the new year. Just a little spray paint and a cactus made this $2 estate sale bird planter a little more classy.

2 Comments | Art, Art: crafts, Art: gardening, Art: mcm thrift store find, Art: mid-century design | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
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Laundry Room: Before & After

11/23/2010

Would you like to see a quick half-done before and after? I’m in the process of renovating our laundry room. It’s an extension of the master bathroom remodel that we finished a few months ago. I’ve been wanting to put shelves above the washer and dryer. The first step was to paint the walls back there … but I couldn’t paint the whole laundry room because the other half of the room doesn’t have finished drywall. One thing at a time. So here’s the washer and dryer area before.

And here it is after / now. It’s not really done. I need to go through some of this stuff with Jason and decide what we can get rid of an what can more to the shed because I was hoping to store some other things on these shelves and they’re already full! We probably have 15 gallon cans of paint, most of which have less than a quart of paint. I’m not sure we really need to keep all that…

I have lofty dreams of storing a tub of fabric and my sewing machine in here as well as our games and a box or two of hats and gloves. Hmm … stay tuned.

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Posted by mahlbrandt

Before & After: Love Birds

10/06/2010

Jason and I picked up these ceramic birds at a thrift store a little while ago. Birds are kind of trendy and I like the trend but also my parents used to collect white bird figurines. That could be partly why I thought these would look best in white.

Though, I have to admit, my first suggestion to Jason was that we paint them orange or red. Ultimately we decided white would go with anything and emphasize the shape. I like them.

1 Comment | Art, Art: before & after, Art: interior design, Art: mcm thrift store find, Art: mid-century design, Art: modern design | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt