A craigslist Ethan Allen nightstand rehab
Attention: If you are the type of person whose heart breaks when someone paints old furniture, today's post is not for you. You should probably go visit another blog just for today. 😉
I've been on the lookout for a paintable nightstand for Zoe's room, so when this one popped up on Facebook Marketplace for $25, I picked it up.
The finish had definitely seen better days.
But that doesn't matter in the slightest if you're painting!
I sanded it down, using my Bosch orbital sander.
I also did some hand sanding to get the areas where the orbital sander can't reach.
I never worry about getting every last bit of the old stain off. When you're painting, you just need to get the sheen off so that the primer will stick.
This is why I like to paint rather than stain! I can be much lazier with the prep. 😉
I always use a hand broom to dust off the furniture at this point, and then I wipe it down with a damp cloth.
Priming comes next, with Zinnser 1-2-3- primer. It's water based, which I love.
Water-based primers and paints can be cleaned up with water, which makes things 10000% easier.
Primed furniture always looks completely terrible, but that's all right. The point here is to create a surface that paint will stick to.
I give the primed surfaces a really light hand sanding, dust them off, and then it's time for paint!
I still had about a half gallon of the paint I bought for Sonia and Zoe's beds and for Sonia's dresser: Benjamin Moore Advance, semi gloss, in Cloud White.
(Which, incidentally, is also the paint I used when I painted my kitchen cabinets.)
The first coat of paint is still pretty splotchy, which is as it should be.
Multiple thin coats are always preferable to one thick coat.
Eventually, you get good coverage. But you have to be patient!
Once I'm done with the last coat, I usually like to let my furniture sit for a day or two before use, just to make sure it's completely dry.
I think this is especially important before adding hardware. If you try to screw that in before the paint is dry and hard, it's easy to screw it in too tight and leave marks in the paint.
Speaking of hardware...I had some pulls leftover from when I rehabbed Sonia's Bassett dresser, and luckily, the drawer pull was precisely the right size for the existing drawer holes.
YES.
Interestingly, I was able to sell the original pull on eBay for $12, which means I recouped half of the original purchase price!
Conclusion: it never hurts to list random things on eBay.
Remember when I sold the hardware from Sonia's dresser for more than I paid for the dresser?
Anyway, this project cost me $13 out of pocket, which is very respectable for a solid wood nightstand.
If Zoe ever doesn't need this anymore, I'm sure I could sell it for at least $13.
And that is the nice thing about solid wood furniture! It has a very long lifespan.
Plus when you buy it secondhand, you end up spending way less than you would even if you bought a cheap brand new piece.
And that's the end of what I have to say about this nightstand project. 🙂
What's the last thing you painted? Furniture? Wall? Deck?
Right now is a good time to tackle a painting project. 😉
P.S.I embedded a short video in this post showing me sanding, priming, and painting. But if you want a more thorough look at my process, I also made a slightly longer YouTube video, which you can see right here.
(I am a total YouTube newbie, so don't mind the amateur level of the video. I'll get better with more practice!)
What a sweet little nightstand! I love that you gave it new life! This is just the right size for beside a bed, and I have always preferred a nightstand with drawer((s) and shelve(s)
Thanks!
And yes, a nightstand with a bit of storage is really great to have, especially if your room is on the smaller side like Zoe's.
Thank you for mentioning the Benjamin Moore Advance paint line. We used it last summer to paint two wooden chairs for my daughter's college apartment. The paint has been very durable and the chairs still look great.
It's great stuff, isn't it? I love how hard the finish is once it dries.
I think painting and gardening are perfect at home projects now, but we’re not allowed to buy paint or go to garden stores!
Ohh, you can't even do curbside pickup? That really stinks!
The last thing I painted was just this past weekend and it was (don't laugh) a small metal bucket printed with a faded Coors Light logo and cheesy mountain scenery. I found it in my ditch where someone had lost it or tossed it. (We get a fair amount of trash in our ditch, unfortunately, but usually it's empty water bottles, Solo cups and fast food wrappers. Oh the joy of living on a country cut-through road.).
I had a can of Rustoleum Paint and Primer spray paint in a bronze-y brown metallic that I had used on a metal outdoor table last year, so I painted the bucket with that same paint. I hung the bucket on the pegboard by my back door, and dropped my rain shoes in it for going out in the wet. I know some folks use a shoe tray by the door, but I always prefer to have less of stuff on the floor that has to be picked up and cleaned under. Plus, I have a dog who still gets that urge now and then to carry off a random shoe. That bucket looks a world better, now that it's painted, than it did before.
Years ago I found an Ethan Allen twin bed frame for $25 at a yard sale and bought and painted it. It's served for a long time! I happen to love painted furniture, so this post is just right for me.
What an improvement! Looks wonderful. It's been a while since I have painted anything ... I think my last project was spray painting my patio furniture. It's time to do it again.
As always your finished project looks great.
Have you or any of your readers had any issue with pests such as bedbugs from secondhand furniture? I've always been curious about that. But we live in an apartment and painting furniture is definitely not an option available to us. Thank you for the detailed post, very informative.
I never have had a problem with bugs. I almost always get non-upholdtered furniture which, I think, reduces the changes of bugs. The one exception was when I bought a dining table and 10 upholstered chairs last year. In that instance, I saw the table & chairs at the seller's home, so not only could I evaluate the chairs, I could evaluate the seller and her home as well.
As far as I know, bedbugs need upholstered surfaces to live in, such as a mattress. I don't think they can live on hard surfaces, such as wood.
I would be wary of buying something like a secondhand mattress; if I had to do it, I'd at least encase it in a bedbug proof cover for a good long time, to make sure nothing was living in there!
Great job!
Cool bvideo!
Yesterday, I spray painted a metal deck handrail and touched up some wall scuffs in the house. I was going back and forth between these two projects, so I cannot remember which I did last.
Husband & I (mostly husband) built bird houses over the weekend.
I love your painting/rehab posts. When I was growing up my grandmother lived with us. We were always out thrifting together, and she loved refinishing old furniture. We had a family dining table that had been stripped,painted,restripped,stained, over and over.It held up for years. When I got married I inherited that table.It was back to wood/stain by then. Used it for 10 years then when we moved cross country for my husband to go to grad school, I sold it to a good friend who used it for another 20 years! She mailed me pictures from time to time of her and her Mom, and grandkids,using the sturdy table! My Nan redid rockers, end tables, patio furniture, you name it.. me, I did not inherit her skill.. but I still love to watch YOU do it!! LOL.
This looks like a $300 nightstand from Pb, a personal favorite store of mine. Well done!
I love the video. I hope you do more, it adds information that pictures have trouble conveying.
The last thing I painted was the small folding outdoor table last year, which was a practice piece for staining an occasional table for the living room. There were so many unnecessary frustrations with those projects! The big one for the folding table was reassembling. (This is separate from the necessary ones, such as each step taking two substeps (frex, priming the front, letting it dry, then repeating the process to prime the back; and I'm really impatient about waiting between steps) Despite my having taking many photos, it took an hour and a fair deal of swearing before I got it right. It looks really good, though.
One problem I have with refinishing furniture is that I prefer stained furniture to painted furniture. As FG says, it's much harder. In the case of the occasional table I did last year, very much harder. It took several weekends to sand the stain off, the original maker had stained it to thoroughly. I really miss having access to a full workshop, where I could have planed off the top 1/8" instead of all that sanding.
Fortunately for me, I don't need much furniture any more.
I'm going to try to do a video a week on my YouTube channel. I'm not very good at video yet, so this is kind of a challenge for me.
But I have to practice what I preach to my kids all the time...you have to be bad at something before you can be good at it.
Wow, that’s gorgeous!!
This looks so pretty and a perfect job done.
I m constantly trying to persuade my husband to sell on eBay he would enjoy doing so I know and this one of yours may just persuade him, once the corona virus has finally died away.
Take care all of you,
Big hug through the airwaves from Erika W.
eBay has gotten so easy to use since the phone app became available. I usually make my listing on the computer (easier to type), save it as a draft, and then log in on my phone to add photos from my camera phone.
Stay safe and healthy, friend!
DH is prepping our house to paint right now. Even though our house is only 14 years old, it has required a ton of prep work. He has had to fabricate new gutters, replace the siding and trim on the dormer windows, and replace some of the fascia boards. We've had the paint in our garage for two years. It will be nice to have it all done. BTW, he has not been procrastinating. Right after buying the paint on a screaming deal, we found a house to flip. It was a complete gut job and took over a year.
He has been wearing the same jeans for a week. I asked him if he wanted me to wash them. He said he was wearing the same ones each day because the roofing material is really hard on the fabric and he only wanted to ruin one pair of jeans. Love his naturally frugal heart!
SUCH a sensible jean-wearing man. Yay!
A close friend had a bunch of extra trim paint (she’s preparing to sell their house), so she gave me a nearly full can. I’ve been slowly making my way around the house to update our trim. It makes a huge difference!
Once you start trim painting, you just can't stop! You see one fresh white piece and then it's just too tempting to keep refreshing more.
This is why I haven't started on my trim.
Right? The newly-done trim is going to make the old trim feel kind of embarrassed to be seen. 😉
It looks great! Much better than before and way less time to paint than to stain. 🙂
We just painted four exterior house doors adjacent to our patio... They turned out great.
We googled consumer reports and got Clark Kensington Exterior paint from ACE.
That looks amazing! I think you did Ethan Allen justice, it's a neutral color and classic drawer pull. There's an EA dining room buffet on CL I've had my eye on by me- but they're asking $600 for it! I know it's an amazing brand and construction (and $600 is probably a fraction of the original price considering the size) but I'll wait for that one to drop for sure!
Yep. Patience is a virtue. And there's always more old furniture being listed, particularly in these times when people seem to be using extra time to clean out their garages/basements.
beautiful job!
Wow, what a gorgeous transformation! I had that nightstand growing up and seeing the old pull reminded me of how I'd lift it up and drop it down again and again. The banging noise was annoying so I likely did it to bug my sister! I also recall using a pen to trace around the curly pull, which annoyed my mom (and for good reason). In my current life, the last thing I painted was an accent wall in our bedroom before the paint store closed for the pandemic.
Yes, I really do not like that about bail pull handles. They're so noisy! Cup pulls or some other kind of regular pull are nice and quiet.
But they're not nearly as good for annoying a sibling.
I used the same paint that's on the exterior trim of our house on a set of wooden pet stairs my husband built so that our dogs can safely access the den sofas. It looks great and matches the blue gray slipcover on the huge coffee table size ottoman that is essentially a crash pad for our three dachshund mixes. They all inherited the short legs and long backs, so the stairs help protect them from back injuries.
My husband dislikes painted furniture, but I like it and really enjoyed that little project.
I’m going to re paint our interior doorknobs. It’s just All Those Steps. Take apart, set up painting, paint, dry, re hang. Ug. When someone said “bugs”, I thought they meant outdoor hugs while painting! Around here, you would have to commit to do it all in a day for bugs, rain or whatever.
I use Howard’s wood restore to refresh stained furniture. I much prefer the natural wood colors. To each his own!
I'm actually looking for that exact drawer pull. We have a solid ethan allen dresser we painted. One of the handles broke.
Well, maybe eBay will bless you with one!
It looks great! Nice job.
Thank you!
I am currently painting all my bedroom furniture. My first project ever in painting furniture. So far so good 🙂
I habe been on some sort of painting everything kick. Painted basement door. Stained front door. Painted trim in bathroom getting ready to paint bedroom doors and deciding on either painting kitchen cabinets or staining them. I have been so back and forth on cabinets I just caint decide.
I love this! I’d like to try something like this for my son’s room, but how do you know if second-hand furniture is paintable, especially if you’re just seeing a photo? I’m a DIY newbie ♀️ Thanks!!
I always look for listings that say "solid wood". If you ask for pictures of the drawer sides, you can usually see if they're dovetailed, which would indicate solid wood construction.
And if you go to pick up a piece and you discover that it's not solid wood, you can always say hey, no thanks, this is not what I was expecting. You haven't signed a contract or anything. 🙂
I hope that helps!
Great job on the video! I love that you included one! We have been painting all of the old dark wood doors and windows white in my 70s home. Shew!! So many coats of paint!
I love your time lapse video. I too love using BM Advance paint. I love how the dresser looks.
The video is very good, wouldn't it be nice if chores could go this fast!! Good Job.
Haha, yes! We could redo furniture so quickly.
It’s beautiful, Kristen. Gotta love a bargain beauty!
Nice write up. But if you sold the pull on Ebay for $12, you only pocketed about $7 after Ebay fees, PayPal fees, and USPS shipping.
The eBay fees and Paypal fees are in addition to this, yes. But I charge shipping separately, so the buyer paid for that over and above the $12.
Hi! I'm about to embark on a furniture redo project and have read a few of your posts. Do you only recommend the Benjamin Moore Advance paint for furniture now? I read your older one about using Rust-Oleum Painter's touch. Do you recommend that one anymore? I'm trying to decide which to use. I'll be doing two twin beds, a nightstand and a dresser for my boys in black. I don't think they would like it to be too glossy, so I was thinking more of a satin finish. Thoughts?
I do like the Benjamin Moore Advance paint better. I think it holds up better over time. Plus, Rustoleum has changed its formula since I first started using it, and I don't love how thick the paint is now.
I use a satin sheen in the Advance paint; it has just a tiny amount of shine, but nothing obnoxious.
If you can't get Benjamin Moore where you live, look for an alkyd paint in another brand; that's the type of paint that the Advance is. It hardens like oil-based paint, but it cleans up with water. Truly the best of both worlds!
Thank you so much for your quick reply! I will definitely look into that paint. I just found your blog for the first time this weekend and I am loving what I'm seeing so far! Thanks for providing helpful and uplifting content. God bless.