Before and After: Wood Filler Rescues Two Free Facebook Marketplace Nightstands in a $125 Flip

If you’re a beginner furniture upcycler — or even a seasoned DIYer like Christina Clericuzio, aka @flipdaddie on TikTok and Instagram — Facebook is your best friend for scoring free furniture for a nothing-to-lose, experimental DIY.

Christina scored these two nightstands on Facebook Marketplace and decided to convert them into dark and dreamy nightstands partially inspired by a beautiful indigo cabinet she saw in a store.

Christina’s Facebook finds were “in good condition, just dated,” she says, so she removed their clunky hardware, took out their top drawers and removed the bottom bases, and got to work converting them into sleek and smooth blue beauties.

Christina first used wood filler to even out the patterned detail she didn’t want on the front doors. Once that solidified, she sanded down the whole piece, primed it, and painted it.

Christina reattached the old hinges that she spray painted gold, then added acrylic handles and brass legs from Amazon. “I love the gold hardware and how the legs elevate the nightstands,” Christina says.

It took her about a week to complete both nightstands. “I took my sweet time,” Christina says. “I probably could have done it in three days, though.”

She says the only true setback was getting the color just right. “The first blue color I painted it was too royal blue, so I had to repaint it more navy, which took some extra time,” she says. (Her final choice is Behr’s Starless Night!)

Her materials cost about $125 — not bad for two new nightstands! Christina says she’s proud of the fact that “the finished product looks unrecognizable from the before.” Her free Facebook Marketplace finds have certainly come a long way, and they’re proof that less-than-ideal doors are no reason to shun a perfectly good cabinet.

Inspired? Submit your own project here.