"How to" Antique your nightstands...

Ok so...since we're moving to our new house in January I thought it would be nice to have some new furniture for it...naturally...I'm a girl. BUT  instead of actually spending the money to buy new furniture why not just redo some furniture you currently have? BING...good idea...I'm all about saving a few extra bucks. We currently have dark wood furniture in our bedroom and I wanted to lighten it up a bit to match the light grey paint I'm going to have in our new bedroom; light, airy...relaxing. I think so.

  1. Start off by removing the drawers and the old hardware.

 



2. Using an electric sander (makes your life MUCH easier) sand off all of the old stain on the drawers.

3. Next, do the same with the night stand and when you're done wipe off all pieces with a wet paper towel. 

4. Depeding on what hardware you choose you might have to fill in the previous holes. You can do this using Elmers wood filler. Let set for a few hours to dry completely then sand to smooth. 

5. Now you're ready to paint. I used Kills Pro-X because you can do less coats. Behr is also another good brand. Once done let set until dry. I left the top of the nightstand to stain later.

6. Once the paint is dry you can start with the easy to clean wood stain (no polyurethane). It's almost like a paint. Go over the drawers and the nightstand but leave the top untouched. Rub into the wood and wip off exess with a wet paper towel/rag. Once you get it to where you want it let it set until its dry.

7. I chose to do a swirly design but you can do whatever you want (if any design at all). Just paint over the the template using a small paint brush. Once done let it set until dry. 



8. Once you're done with the design and it's dry it's time to "antique" by sanding off the paint around the edges of the furniture. It gives it that "aged" look.  Then after you're done go over the places that you sanded with a polyurethane stain; it brings out the color of the wood. Also, stain the top of the nightstand to match and let dry overnight. You'll need to go over the stain once with steel wool (000 grade or finer) once it's smooth put on one more coat of stain and let it dry 6 hours +

Now all you have to do is drill holes for your hardware and voila! New nightstands! I got my hardware at anthropologie.com on sale for $2/ea!

 (Before: left, After: right)