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Title: Bedside Table Upgrade
Name: Jessica
Time: 2 days
Cost: About $35.00
Jessica's February Jumpstart is all about fresh starts for old furniture. Check out how she's taken a $35 junk shop find and made it into a great addition to her bedroom with minimal investment. Click above for the pics and head below for all the instructions. Give Jessica a THUMBS UP if you find this project helpful....
BEFORE
TOOLS:
- Interior semi-gloss paint from Home Depot (Behr Rapture Blue for the exterior and Innocence for the interior)
- Paint roller and tray
- Paint brushes
- New 99 cent cabinet knobs from Home Depot
- Wood filler
- Sand paper
Optional: Orbital sander (needed if the furniture's finish is in good condition because paint won't stick to a lot of finishes); primer
STEPS:
- The cabinet was originally in our den, and we used it as a (very large) end table and as a hidey-hole for our printer. I got really fed up with the size because we have a small den and our yard-sale special furniture is huge. I decided to swap the cabinet out with a smaller table and take the cabinet for my bedside table.
- I started this project by giving the cabinet a good scrub-down. I bought it at a junk shop for $35.00 and had never really cleaned it thoroughly, so a scrubby sponge and dustbuster did wonders to clean this baby up. I probably should have sanded it, but I'm kind of lazy about things like that, and would rather get down to painting. Luckily, the finished product turned out well without sanding.
- I painted the exterior with two coats of Behr Rapture Blue, and once that dried, I painted the interior in Behr Innocence (seriously the best paint color name ever). As you can see in the before pictures, one of the drawer pulls was missing, and the right cabinet door did not have a knob. Upon removing the knob on the left cabinet, I discovered that it wasn't actually a real knob, but a wooden spool that had been nailed to the front of the cabinet. Classy.
- I drilled holes in the doors for the new knobs, which I purchased from Home Depot, and used wood filler to fill two of the holes on the drawer. Once the wood filler dried, I sanded and painted the drawer fronts, then attached the knobs.
- All in all, this was a super-easy project that I'm really pleased with! I think it looks great in my bedroom, and it doubles as a linen closet for our sheets!
RESOURCES:
I love sourcing junk shops for ratty/broken furniture that can be fixed with some clean-up, a coat of paint, and some minor tinkering.
Give Jessica a THUMBS UP if you find this project helpful....
nice job! the color you chose is fantastic.
out of curiosity, where did you find that lamp? i've been looking for one like it & i'll be sitting in darkness until i find one.
view tripleB's profile
Amother unique beautiful wooden piece with charming patina robbed of original brass hardware and turned into run-of-the-mill IKEA-style trash...
view bromelia's profile
If scratched by a cat is a charming patina.
view K T G's profile
I really like the "after". If its a good quality solid wood piece it might also have been nice in a natural finish, but its hard to tell from the "before" photographs - and at $35 I'm guessing not. Nice job!
view catspajamas's profile
and of course, the wood moralists come out.
view inkstainedwriter's profile
"Charming patina"? The before looks awful! Great job fixing it up.
view confusednazgul's profile
If you look at the cabinet, the right hand door is a replacement made out of some thin patched-together plywood, and it's missing the border edge. The two doors don't match. Painting the cabinet white makes the defects disappear. This piece wouldn't have looked good stripped down, so painting it is a good save.
view MansardRoof's profile
I would suggest using more interesting doorknobs. It's hard to tell from the photos, but the black knobs look a bit cheap (sorry). Maybe use some nice round glass knobs. I'm sure Restoration Hardware or even an antique or junk shop would have some. That would be a nice link to the glass lamp and take the result up a notch.
view monroe's profile
I wish the original hardware is also painted and moved to the middle.
view tliad's profile
LOL inkstainedwriter! I think I'm going to have your comment printed up poster-size, in some kind of crazy color. Then I'm going to frame it and hang it up next to some of my painted wood.
view pointseast's profile
jeeze it looked dreadful before.
I like the color too and I agree the black hardware is not right. Glass or even something like these pale green resin flowers-
http://www.lahardware.com/store/index.lasso?cat1=contemporary&cat2=cabinet&tmpl=2&skp=60
view LoriSF's profile
What makes this kind of cast-off an excellent candidate for a project is the condition: how can you really go wrong? (and you certainly didn't, Jessica) Plus you obviously loved this piece, warts and all. Switch the knobs - don't switch the knobs, whatever suits your room's mood. Great spirit! Thanks!
view Vincent B.'s profile
To me it looked better before...
No Joke!
Good work!
view BerlinDirk's profile
Ahhh, where is the edit-function. I meant:
No! Joke!
view BerlinDirk's profile
I'm with (almost) everyone else here- fantastic save!
That before picture looked almost hopeless, you did this piece a service by rescuing it from a firewood fate.
I do agree with the others about the knobs though- knobs and pulls are dreadfully expensive, but can really complete the look. Maybe some seashell-shaped pulls would be cute on yours?
I have to ask too... what happened to the original hardware? It looked really neat, and I'm kinda hoping that you eBayed it...
view shockthebourgeois's profile
I think clear glass knobs would look awesome on this, especially with that fantastic lamp. But it looks a hundred times better than it did before.
I don't get the Ikea comment, it looks more cottage style than anything in Ikea. By charming patina, did you perhaps mean hideously damaged? Although I kinda think wooden spools would make cute knobs :)
view jancola's profile
Cute as a button- very sweet little bedside table. Good save:)
view Leah*N's profile
I'm a big fan of antiques, and I often cringe when I see them painted, but honestly, this piece was in terrible condition.
view Lisa (Montreal)'s profile