Before & After: Bed Stand Project

01.09.2012

Step 1: Bed Stand Project

This is the bed stand that's been in my childhood room in my parents' house for 16+ years.  I know it's actually been around longer because this was "given" to me as a hand-me-down.  The reason I say it was "given" is because, it was just one of those things that your parents just randomly put in your room soley for function...not for any aesthetic reasoning.  Well, I came home to vacation at my parents' house this winter break only to find them completely redoing the whole house, practically.  So now that my old room has new teak cherry wood floors, a fresh coat of painted walls, an eliminated popcorn ceiling, fixed closet doors, and a ceiling fan, I decided that it was time to put some "aesthetic vision" with the furniture we have.

Thus, the first item of business was this bed stand....

Step 2: First Order of Business....

was to sand down the old paint & varnish.  I used the Black & Decker Mouse Sander and did some sanding by hand to remove as much as possible.  I also tried to smooth out the edges to round out the corners. 

Step 3: Second Order of Business...

was to prime the bed stand.  I hadn't decided on any colors yet, but I knew whatever it was going to be, I wanted the colors to have a brighter tone, so I opted for a white primer.

Oh, and I removed the old knob with all the intentions of a new one.  Plus, it just made painting easier. [:

Step 4: 3rd Order of Business...

color selecting!  So Home Depot has bottles of testers, by Glidden, for only 50cents!  I bought three colors to try out and ended up using all three as my main colors.  So the total cost of my main paint was only $1.50! [:

The colors were: Mint Green, Pale Jade, and Slate Green.  Slate green had more of a "gray" color which I thought made a great compliment to the more obvious greens.

Step 5: Finally,

I did a freehand drawing on the top for fun & later, found that neat stencil design on another trip to Home Depot, which is what you see on the bottom shelf.

The stencil color was Martha Stewart's Terra Cotta specialty finish color Paprika.

And my lovely knob, I also found at Home Depot.  I thought I wanted something a little more simple, but this just sat well to give my bed stand a vintage look.  Hahaha. 

Above is my end result!

Please feel free to ask any questions or share any comments/ideas.  I'd love to hear!

Thanks for looking! [:

xo.