Nightstand Makeover - Again

I'm back with another series of furniture refinishing posts. If you've been a long time reader of Craft A Spell, you may have seen my original posts: the nightstand makeover, the desk makeover, and the side table makeover. These all happened right before I moved into my first apartment in April 2013. Not long after, I realized I had made a horrible mistake: I used an oil based polyurethane over latex paint that ambered horribly. I blogged about it here.

Well, it's only taken me three years to fix it. When I moved into my new apartment in April this year, my patience with the yellow furniture was wearing thin, especially since with the new layout of my apartment, I could see the desk (before it was in a little nook that had low light where I could ignore it). Over labor day weekend, I bit the bullet and bought the paint after seeing a post from one of my favorite blogs, Domestic Imperfection, about a water based polyurethane she uses that doesn't yellow.

I did everything at the same time inside my little apartment (it was a mess for a few weeks) but we'll start with the nightstand. Here's what I used:

• Kilz original oil based primer
• Behr Premium Plus Ultra Interior Satin Enamel in Mystic Turquoise 
• Varathane No Odor Interior Water Based Polyurethane Satin Crystal Clear (ordered on Amazon)

Here is what the nightstand looked like before.

I sanded the nightstand lightly to rough up the surface and give the primer something to cling to. I put on one coat of primer and then three coats of the Behr paint (sorry no pictures of the different stages). Then I covered the top with three coats of the polyurethane per the instructions. Here's how it came out.

It's actually darker in person but the color photographs weird. I am very happy with it and the oil rubbed bronze handles still look great! I'm feeling pretty hopeful I won't be writing an angry follow up post in six months because the reviews on Amazon for the polyurethane were great!

As a reminder, here is what they originally looked like before I made them over:

Here is what they had looked like before it yellowed:

Nightstand Makeover

I redid these nightstands concurrently with my side tables. They were my grandparent's matching nightstands. They were a little dirty and worn with age but all they needed was a little paint job to spruce them up!

Here is the before:

Here is a close up of the tops. It seems like someone had a little fun with antiquing them with stain (but it didn't work out too successfully). You'll also notice that someone added a little gold lining around the edge of the drawers.

Here is a close up of the hardware. I cleaned them with a degreaser before spraying them. Even though the nightstands are matching, I find it interesting to see how different they wore down in color.

Here is what I used to refinish them:

-Primer: Kilz
-Color: Duron Quench Blue in semi-gloss (2 coats)
-Polyurethane: Minwax in Clear Gloss (2 coats)
-Hardware: Krylon Oil Rubbed Bronze

I gave them a good sand (especially the top) and wiped them down with Lysol wipes. Then I gave them each a coat of Kilz primer and two coats of semi-gloss paint called Quench Blue which is the same color as my bedroom at home. I sprayed the hardware with the amazing Krylon Oil Rubbed Bronze spray paint that I've seen everyone using and gave the entire nightstand two coats of Minwax polyurethane. Here is the result.

 Here is a close up of the hardware. I love the oil rubbed bronze look!

 

Here is one of the nightstands sitting in my new bedroom. I got these cute mercury glass candlestick holder lamps from World Market for $25 each and picked up a cheap, white shade from Target for about $10. I was going to make my own mercury glass lamp but I didn't have anything on hand that would work and I figured once I found a glass lamp base that I wanted and got the spray paint, it was worth it to buy these.

Here is a reminder of the before and after.

I love them! The blue is awesome and I think they look great!