Nightstand Makeover Take 2

Wayyyy long ago. Like 6 months ago. Right after I started this blog, this was one of my first projects. I painted our old and beat up nightstand. (Which is really an end table that belonged to my great-grandmother and matches a table that was in Better Homes and Gardens and that is another long story you can read about here.)

The problem was I hated it. The color was not at all what I wanted. Not even close. I was hoping for more of a deep and elegant brown. Not this yucky, mud puddle brown color that I ended up with. On top of the horrible color was that fact that even though I let it sit for several days before I put anything on top of it, stuff kept sticking to the paint. I was so frusterated with it that I just left it like that, sticky paint and all. And hated it for the next six months. Only the cats seemed to like it, but they love anything they climb inside of.

I kept waiting for warmer weather so I could carry this sucker out the garage and attack it with a paintbrush. But winter seems to be stretching on this year with temperatures continuing to hang out below freezing. So I just spread a drop cloth in one corner of the bedroom and started painting. Mr. Delightful is learning not to ask questions.

The color is "Quiet Rain" by Glidden. It's yet another free quart from one of their paint promotions. They have kept me well supplied in paint for the past year. I was afraid it might be too close to the wall color, but I think it contrasts just enough.

I spent all day keeping the cats away while I was painting. After I finished the third coat (covering up that muddy brown was a pain) I left the room for a minute. I came back to find this:

Yes, that is a cat print embedded in my final, smooth coat of paint. And since cats have four legs, guess how many of those little paw prints were left in my perfect  good enough paint finish?

After applying yet another coat to try and cover up all the kitty fingerprints left behind, I decided that it needed a little adornment. So I ended up using my trusty Cricut to cut out a stencil. I ripped off a plastic-like cardboard cover from a travel guide to Gunnison, Colorado that I had laying around. It was the right thickness for a stencil and it was free.

I started out trying to make a pretty swirly outline as shown above. That didn't work out so well so I went the simpler route with just the solid swirl shape. The white paint is some Behr paint that I already had in my paint can stash. It is semi-gloss compared to the eggshell finish of the blue paint which made it stand out even more.

I added the handle back on and put the nightstand back in its corner. But it still looked like it needed just a little something more. So I decided to add a striped border around the edge. I pulled out a roll of painters tape and taped off a border.

Disclaimer: The way I made my border is not at all how your are supposed to do it. This is the lazy way to do it. If you are like me and are always looking for a shortcut and a way to do things that doesn't require hunting in the garage for the proper tools that you can never find unless your husband is around to direct you on where said tools might be hiding, then you might understand. But I don't recommend my method, because I didn't follow the rules and you probably should stick to the rules.

Here's how I shortcutted it. First, I didn't measure anything. No ruler, no pencil, no tape measure. I just sort of eyeballed where the first line of painters tape should go. That is the line closest to the outside. Then I decided to just make my stripe exactly the width of the painters tape. So I used the tape to mark off another line next to the outside box. Finally, I marked off one more box on the inside using the tape. Then I simply removed the middle line of tape, leaving an almostly perfectly marked border to paint my line. That doesn't make much sense when I try to explain it, but maybe a picture will help.

Still confused? Then do it the right way and measure everything out. Here's how mine ended up looking.

I started off painting the box using leftover paint from my kitchen. The color is Glidden's Whispering Wheat. It ended up looking too yellow though. So I pulled out my dark brown paint from our master bathroom makeover. This dark brown paint is actually a mix of Glidden Bittersweet Chocolate and some black Behr paint. I added just a little bit to some of the Whispering Wheat in a small tray and mixed them together. I love mixing paints and I do it whenever the color doesn't turn out to be the shade I want it to be. I guess I could call this shade Chocolate Wheat.

Here's how it finally turned out.

It's hardly perfect. The corners of my border are a bit messy and you can still see the outline from my first stenciling attempt on the drawer front.

But I'm happy with it. It looks so soft and romantic now. If a nightstand can be called romantic.

I added a picture from back when Mr. Delightful Dwelling and I were dating. It's one of those cheesey old time photos taken at Silver Dollar City, but I still love it. My hair was super long back then and I think Mr. Delightful's expression is pretty funny.

I think overall it looks much better than the mud puddle mess it was before. It went from "mud puddle brown" to "quiet rain blue".