Farmhouse Nightstand Makeover

Farmhouse style.  It’s all the rage these days.  How about you?  Are you ready for a touch farmhouse today?

Welcome to the May collection from the DIY Furniture Girls, where 20 bloggers use one theme and create 20 different looks.  This month’s challenge is a salute to patriotism.  Each blogger will refinish a piece of furniture using red, white, or blue.Happily, no one asked me to find the absolute saddest looking nightstand on the planet.  I just did this on my own.  After all, as we move from month to month, I like to keep you guessing.  Remember last month’s lovely serpentine chest?  Click here to see.  Well, this month, I pulled a 180 and rescued this little guy from the bathroom in the basement.   I don’t eeeeeven want to think about what it’s been through. #boys #20plusyears

Disclosure: I received free paint from Poppies Paint Powder in exchange for writing a review on the blog. This post does NOT contain an affiliate link and all opinions are 100% my own.

After a good scrubbing, this is what’s left of the original finish.  Notice the hardware was rusting — and believe it or not –I opted to leave it this way.

The plan was to paint it a nice red using Ralph Lauren latex paint.  But after it was painted, I decided to distress the edges with 120-grit sandpaper.  Once in a while, even Ralph needs to get his farmhouse on.

And I liked the way it turned out, but it was already a little small for the space.  When I stepped back and looked at the big picture, the red made it look even smaller.  I even tossed a few red accessories in the mix trying to visually expand the red.  And I planned to buy pillows with red for the bed.

But no combination of accessories, wood, or fabric helped the little red nightstand look rightly scaled for the space.  Plus, it was beginning to swing juvenile and I really didn’t want that.  And so…..  time for Plan B.  What I needed to do is visually include the nightstand with the focal point piece…which is the bed.  So the nightstand went back out to the woodshed for another makeover.

This time I used a creamy white latex paint and made it into chalk paint by adding a product called Poppies Paint Powder.  It’s really easy to mix.  Just add water to the powder, then stir the paint into the mix.  And voila.  Latex paint becomes chalk paint.  Click here for a full product review.

But here’s the real shocker.  It only took two coats to cover the red and there was no bleed through.

 Pinky promise.

The edges were slightly distressed, but I really wanted the nightstand to melt into the color of the sheets.  The tones were already a bit different so a light hand with the distressing merely outlined the nightstand.  Sometimes less is more. This, I believe, was one of those times.

Now the piece is refreshed with an updated look, but isn’t dwarfed by the Queen bed.

And with the white, I can easily change out the bed linens for guests.  You know, I have about five different sets depending on who’s coming.  Can’t have a frat boy sleeping in a room decorated for Mema ……can we?   

And almost all of the change outs…yes….all five of them….fit in the little red creamy white nightstand.  Maybe soon, I’ll do a post on quick changing the look of the room for different types of guests.  It’s super easy and, of course, done on the cheap.  

In the meantime, if you’re like me and like light and bright, but don’t want to go all white, here’s a post that offers 5 easy ideas to help with that.  Click here to see.

And, as always….thanks so much for stopping by…and please…don’t forget to pin.

And….now……..more from the lovely …