Night Stand Rehab

My parents have had these sweet little unique night stands in their extra bedroom for years.  They came from my Great Grandmother.  When I think of her, I think of all of the summer/snow days we spent running wild and climbing the pine tree in her yard.  

I knew these would be the perfect addition to our house.  

We first had them as side tables to our couch until Cody build new ones for us.  Once he did that, they were put in the yoga/craft room and not really touched for awhile.  I looked in there one day and decided, today is the day to give these babies some life!

When I was thinking of what to do with the night stands, I knew I didn't want them looking like brand new pieces.  I wanted to let the character of these pieces show through. 

Supplies that I used:

Sand Paper (The recommended grit is 150 but I only had 120 on hand and this worked just fine!)

Two thin towels

Paint 

Small paint roller
Minwax Paste Refinishing Wax - Special Dark

The majority of these materials we already had, and you most likely do too! 

First, you'll want to gently sand down the surface you will be painting. These pieces didn't need much sanding, just enough to get the very top shiny finish off enough for the paint to adhere to the surface.

Once you're done sanding, take the thin towel/cheese cloth...and whip down the area that was sanded.

Once your surface is sanded and cleaned, you are ready to start painting!

When applying your paint, you want to go in thin layers so that there aren't bubbles, run marks, etc.  

You may have to apply multiple layers depending on the paint you're using and how dark the surface is you're working with.  Let each layer of paint fully dry.

If the first coat of paint has bubbles, run marks or any imperfections...don't worry! Once that layer is completely dry, take your sand paper and gently go across the surface. Then wipe that clean and apply your next layer. 

Now it's time to distress!! Grab your sand paper and gently go over the areas you'd like to distress on your piece.  Maybe the corners, the lines of the furniture where you would expect to see a little wear, the creases...just go with whatever feels right to you! 

Distressing used to make me a little stressed not going to lie...I wanted even marks on each side, even distressing on each corner.  But this project was so different.  I spent time thinking about, if these pieces had been painted for years, where would the wear and tear be?  On the top, on the corners, in the creases...  Don't let distressing be intimidating! It's such a beautiful thing! Go with the flow of your piece and make it you! 

After you've done your distressing, it's time for the wax.  This helps bring out the natural color of the wood.  The kind of wax I used is the special dark so that made the wood a little bit of a deeper color to help the distressing stand out more. With your clean towel, get wax onto the towel, and rub into the areas you've distressed.  

Then I go back and gently wipe the excess off. I didn't necessarily want a 'dirty' look on the white paint and just wanted to enhance the wood.

When we build table, or finish pieces that are going to be used frequently, we always put a coat of polyurethane on it.  This helps protect the finish and furniture.  However, since these will be in the extra bedroom as night stands, they won't be getting much wear on them so we decided these would be fine without the poly. If you're distressing a piece that will be in a main living space and used frequently, you'll definitely want to apply a few coats.  Plus let's be honest...I didn't really have the time to do it since I decided to paint the extra bedroom this weekend too! 

To finish them off, I found ADORABLE hardware knobs at TJMaxx for $7.99 for 6!! These add the perfect pop of color. 

The final look:

Before:

So glad I decided to breathe some life back into these beauties!!