Restoring Thrifted Furniture : Nightstand DIY
I’m excited to finally share the finished product of my faux bamboo nightstand DIY. Restoring thrifted furniture isn’t really all that difficult! It just takes a little elbow grease and the right products. If you follow me on Instagram, I shared the before image of these vintage beauties a few months ago (in case you missed it…see below). Sarah was nice enough to keep her eyes open for me while thrifting and picked up these nightstands for under $30 a piece! I am so happy with how they turned out.
To begin, I removed the hardware and sanded both nightstands with a power sander until they were nice and smooth. I used a piece of 120 grit sandpaper on the drawers because of the faux woven texture. I made sure to wipe down each piece with a wet cloth and vacuum to remove all the dust when finished. Then, I primed the nightstands with two coats of white Valspar primer. I used a paint brush and Sherwin Williams multi-purpose water based acrylic primer for the drawers.
Next, I applied three coats of Valspar lacquer paint, letting dry and wiping clean between each coat. Finally, I applied a spoonful of Minwax furniture polish with a cheesecloth to really make the lacquer shine!
The hardware was the tricky part of this project! Originally, the pulls were pretty tarnished so I tried to salvage them by using Nevr-Dull magic wading polish, some spray paint, and rub-n-buff. In the end I was pretty unhappy with the color. Replacing the hardware wasn’t really an option since they were custom to the piece. I started doing some research and found this helpful article on Apartment Therapy. Although the experiment worked well, I will say it took me about and hour and a half to remove three layers of paint from the hardware. Also, I highly suggest using a thrift store pot rather than one of your nice ones – lesson learned. I topped them off with more wadding polish and they were as good as new (thankfully)!
I love mixing old and new, and I enjoy making old pieces new again. I couldn’t be happier with our new nightstands – they fit the space so much better than my previous ones and they were a fraction of the cost of similar items I was finding online. Is anyone out there getting ready to try a furniture DIY of their own? I would love to hear about your upcoming projects!