When I moved back to the bay area in November, I redecorated my room so that it felt a little bit more grown up (the yellow walls and piles of stuffed animals were not really doing it for me anymore). I painted the walls “simply tan” (or rather my dad did, because upon finishing washing the walls I started showing the signs of mono and pretty much became dead to the world for 2 weeks). I got rid of my old dresser, nightstands and desk which did not match anything and purchased 2 brown-black 3-drawer Ikea dressers and brought in my 2 bookshelves from my apartment in southern California. I repositioned the furniture and hung a beautiful new painting done by a friend of mine (please check her out on facebook … just search for “Art by MG” … you will be incredibly glad you did!). The room was starting to come together nicely, but there was one important piece missing – a nightstand.
I had a checklist of attributes for my nightstand. It had to be either black or a dark wood to match the rest of the furniture in the room. It also had to be small because there was not much space in which to place it. I also had the idea in my head that I wanted it to be round. I am not sure why but I was convinced that a round nightstand would look better in the room.
I searched high and low for a suitable nightstand. I tried every store imaginable and looked at website after website. All of the ones I liked were way too expensive (upwards of $100). All of the ones that were inexpensive I did not like. All of the ones that were mediocre in both style and price were sold out. I looked for months and finally just gave up.
Then, one day I was talking to my dad in his home office. He had a stack of stuff that he was going to take to goodwill. There was something in the stack that caught my eye. It was a small side table that was a different shape than what I had seen recently. It was very scratched up and there was a piece broken off of it, but it had potential. I asked my dad if I could see the table.
I took the table to my room and placed it under the window right next to my bed. It fit perfectly and looked pretty good. I decided I had found my nightstand for the time being. Now it was time to fix it up a bit.
BEFORE
I took a trip to the hardware store and purchased 2 things – sand paper and black spray paint.
I put the table on our back patio with a tarp under it. I proceeded to sand down the entire thing. I just sanded it lightly all over, just enough to remove the top finish and wear down any splintering areas. Then I used this sticky cloth thing to remove all of the dust from the table. After the dust was removed I started spray painting. I did SEVERAL very light coats. I used 2 entire cans of paint to make sure that the table was fully covered and that the coats were even.
DURING
For under $10 I got a beautiful new nightstand. But, there are still improvements to be made. I want to add a shelf to the bottom which will require a bit of help from my dad and his trusty power tools. Keep your eyes out for an update to this post when I finally get around to installing the shelf component!
AFTER
Revitalizing furniture to make it "new" again takes gumption!
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