French Yellow Night Stands

It's back, friends... My motivation has returned!  Something about this second trimester of pregnancy has finally brought some of my normal Penny Wenny go go go attitude back.  I couldn't be happier.  I was so annoyed with my lack of interest or desire to work on any projects.  On a side note however, I have also been extremely busy with my real job at the dance studio.  I coach two competition teams there, and we are currently preparing for our upcoming competitions so I'm in crunch mode.  I can't wait to show you the finalized pieces after they have competed... these kids are gonna knock your socks off.

Anyway, please forgive me for my lack of exciting projects over the past few months and bear with me over the unexpected upcoming months.  While I do feel ambitious this week I can't promise I'll feel the same way next week.  Fair enough?

One of the best things about having your friends know that you "do furniture" is that they always call you before they dump off their trash to the DI or Goodwill.  My sweet neighbor gave me two little nightstands a while back and I finally did something with them this week.

They started as an average set of nightstands that looked dated and ready for new life.  I loved their curvy frenchy looking little legs. Typically, I love to highlight dark wooden tops but these are not super high quality and are made of MDF on the top with a super laquered faux-wood grain finish.

So shiny I could almost see myself in it.  :)  I didn't want to spend a lot of money on these, and really just wanted to use products I had on hand so that I could do the project that day when I woke up feeling surprisingly motivated.

I started by priming these babies with Kilz.  I often skip this step if I am using a paint and primer in one, but since the tops were so shiny, I really wanted to ensure a well primed surface for my paint to adhere to.

As a reminder, when working with spray paint you always want to do several light overlapping coats.  Do not try to cover the full surface in one coat or you will end with a big drippy mess.   Also, Kilz leaves a gritty texture so I like to lightly go over the dried surfaces with a fine sanders block to smooth it back out before painting.

Here's where the fun began.  I wanted to go for a color I don't usually do like my standard creams and grays.  I picked up a sunny yellow paint I had aquired in my collection from the oops section at Home Depot for $1.  I didn't want these to be childlike though, and felt that the yellow was way too bright.  I rounded up a brown I had also picked up for $1 from the oops section, and mixed a small amount of brown paint with the yellow in a plastic cup until I had a  nice mustardy yellow.

just in case you didn't believe me on the price...

I brushed on two coats of paint, right over the hardware also.

After the paint dried I lightly sanded over the high points bringing out some of the white from the primer and dark brown from the original wooden finish.

I also sanded lightly over the hardware to expose some of the original brass.

They turned out pretty cute, right?

The total cost for me was $8;  $6 for Kilz, and $2 for my oops paint (which I barely even dented so technically it was around $0.20).  Let me remind you of what my $8 did.

Before:

After:

It doesn't take a lot of $ to make fabulous pieces for your home.  Go for it friends!

~PW