Before & After: Nightstand Nightmare No More
Reeves was so excited to work on these Willete mid-century nightstands when she picked them up at a furniture sale. Little did she know the headache they’d be. But despite some setbacks, Reeves really turned this project around and we think the final results were worth the wait.
From Reeves:
The pair had obviously been refinished at some point in what appeared to be a gel stain that was then lacquered over, but the lacquer had been applied too thick and dripped, plus, the finish was dinged and bubbled. I wanted to stain them, so I took the many hours (6 to be exact) to sand off the previous finish and bring them down to bare wood. Next, I cleaned them up and used a walnut stain on all parts of both nightstands, but that’s when things started going wrong. The wood was absorbing the stain in an odd pattern and there was so much color variation to the wood. I tried a second coat of stain to see if it helped, but it did nothing. So, I opted to paint them.
Now, I wanted to keep these classic looking and not do anything too crazy, so I painted them Klein Blue. This color screams mid century to me! Three coats of paint and two coats of satin poly got these nightstands looking good. I then polished the hardware with Bar Keeper’s Friend, and put everything back together. Even though my original plan didn’t turn out, I think this pair came out great, and this color suits them well.
See more at the Weathered Door.
Thank you Reeves!