Bedside Table Makeover

Back in September, we moved our daughter into her first house out in California. The distance between Texas and Redlands always presents a challenge. Our son went to school an hour away in Dallas so it was easy to furnish his first apartment with used furniture found in our family storage barn. Unfortunately it is not cost effective or practical to move used furniture to California. The living and dining rooms the house were furnished, however we needed to completely furnish Claire's bedroom. I purchased a headboard, mattress, and desk online, but we could never find any nightstands that were cute and budget friendly.

On a whim, we decided to visit the local Habitat For Humanity Restore. If you haven't visited your local store, you might want to pop in sometime. This was our first time to shop a Restore and I was impressed. We found two small tables for $6.99 each. We also had another score that I will share in a future post when I share other details of her room.

As you can see, they were pretty banged up. She wasn't crazy about the pull and I was not excited about the laminate top. Bear in mind, I didn't have any of my handy dandy tools that I rely on when tackling a project like this. No electric sander or tried and true paint brushes, just my determination and what we could pick up at Home Depot.

Before I primed the tables, I began by removing the hardware and then sanding the furniture with a sanding block. I then wiped away all the dust and dirt with a damp cloth.

I sprayed the drawers and tables with Zinsser Cover Stain oil base primer in white as seen in the picture before this one. I can't say enough good things about this product, and no this is not a sponsored post. If you are trying to paint laminate or something that looks like wood but maybe isn't, this product is a great primer. It adheres to almost everything, dries quickly and has a smooth finish.

Next I applied two coats of my new favorite Chalk Paint made by Kilz in white, followed by a protective topcoat made by Rust-oleum. I apologize for not providing pictures of these two steps, but we were racing against night fall.

Here is one of the finished nightstands . We did replace the ugly knob with this simple one from Home Depot. I paid $6.99 each for the two nightstands, and approximately $40 for the sanding block, primer, paint, topcoat, and new knobs. When you do the math, that ends up being about $27 each......certainly falls into the "cheap and cheerful" category.

Supply List:

• thrift store find

• Sanding block

• Zinnser Stain Block and Primer

• Kilz Chalk Paint in White and a paint brush

• Rust-oleum Protective Top Coat

• Knobs

I hope this easy peasy project encourages you to visit your local Restore and to tackle a thrift store find. Thank you for stopping by and stay tuned as I continue to share more furniture makeovers and home decor inspiration.