new old nightstands

In our bedroom we have 2 non matching nightstands on each side of the bed.  The one on Jimmy's side is actually one that my mom bought years ago that I used while I was still living at home and my table is a miniature little decorative folding table that is too low to the ground.  His clashes with the dark wood in the room and it has always driven me crazy. 

 (Please excuse the old bedding and the poor quality of some of the following pictures.  I can't take a decent indoor picture to save my life)

One evening Jimmy, Kiera, Berk and I were out on a little night time drive.   We drove past this big antique/junk store in Collinsville that I often visit when I saw two matching nightstands sitting on the sidewalk.  I didn't ask Jimmy to stop and we ended up going.  The next day after I left a baby shower in Broken Arrow I decided to take a little detour past our house to go look at these tables.

Mmmm don't you love that wicker and bamboo combination.  Me neither but it was a matching set and the price was to die for.  I about fell over when I saw one was priced at $8 and the other one at $6 (due to the missing bottom panel). 

Now is when I got sneaky.  AND I would like to publicly apologize to Jimmy for being sneaky.  I'm sorry Jimmy!

I sent Jimmy's parents a message Monday morning asking them if they would go purchase and pick up the nightstands because I wouldn't have been able to go back until the weekend and didn't want to take the chance of someone else snagging them.  Plus I knew Jimmy would say they are ugly, hence all the sneaking around.  I know they are ugly, he just wouldn't have seen the potential they had.  Not a bad thing, his brain just doesn't work that way.  So Jimmy's dad went and and tried to get the lady down to $10 but she said she could do $12!!

A whole week went by before I could begin working on my new old nightstands.  Torture I tell you torture.  Patience is not one of my virtues.

1. Jimmy took off all the hardware and ripped off the plastic bamboo/wicker decor and took off the bottom panel that was still attached to one of the stands.  Then I wiped it all down.

 

2. Sanded it with the in-laws palm sander and a 80 (or 50?) grit sponge sandpaper to rough it up.  It was all covered in laminate so not much deep sanding happened. 

3.  Primed it.

4.  Painted it 3x.

(pretend you see a picture of that here)

5.  Bought a piece of wood at Lowe's and had it cut to meet the length we needed to replace those bottom panels.   Then I sanded the edges, primed, and slapped on 2 coats of paint.

 

7.  Added hardware I found at Target that almost exactly matches our ginormous armoire.  I tried to find pulls to put on the bottom drawers but can you believe that they don't make them with 4 inches between the screws?  Why are they all measured in millimeters?  How long is 96 mm anyway? 

8.  Slap on some random decor to make it look not so empty and ta-daaaaaaaa!!!

I loove them!  Jimmy said I am biased but whatever.  Oh and just in case you are wondering it is the same green paint as Jimmy's bathroom redo and the hallway!  Hahaha!  And there is actually the same shade/color of green in the accent pillows too!  Next on the list is to do something about those 7+ year old burgundy drapes.  Blech.

So the 2 nightstands ended up costing a total $50 since we had to purchase the knobs ($16.99 for 10)  and the $17 piece of wood to add on the bottom (which I still have another piece of).   

 Update: Here is a current picture of our bedroom with lovely new drapes and a hint of one of the nightstands.