Refinishing Furniture

To start any good project, it begins with the right tools! And to refinish anything there are a few very important tools needed: Electric sander, gloves, wide paint brush for dusting, paint brush for painting, screw drivers, and sand paper. 

This particular piece of furniture, has been sitting in my garage for about 4 years!! I love this night stand, but couldn't decide to keep it it's orginial off-white/yellow look, or do a distressed black finish.  I finally went with the distressed black look! So out of storage it came!

I love the little cubby in this night stand, most of them usually have a second drawer instead of the cubby, but this little cubby would be great for displaying books! Another neat feature about this nightstand is the plug-in and cord on the inside cubbie. (however as I found out after it was painted, in order to use the outlet you need a cord that dates back to this piece)

Here's a side view of the nightstand.  This particular type is called a French provincial nightstand. (and that is my little boy next to the table eating his pop-sickle)

Sometimes with antique furniture you find little surprises inside the drawers! I found this lovely crochet pillow inside, it has now become the pillow I sit on when I paint!

Ok so here it goes! First of all you want to try to get as much of the old finish off as possible, this is where the power tools come into play! (Que the Tim the tool man Taylor grunt!) Once you have it all nicely sanded, use a large paint brush to brush off as much of the dust as possible.

               

Once you have all of the dust off it's time to start painting! I like to spray paint the piece first, it just helps to cover better.  Be sure when spray painting, not to hold the spray paint too close to the furniture, or you can get streaks.

This is painting the inside of the piece.  Note I'm only painting on the inside on the parts you can actually see, the top part will have a drawer there, so no need to paint the inside.

After a layer of spray paint, I then go over it with black paint. Main thing to remember when painting is to go with the grain of the wood, and make long even strokes. 

I forgot to take a pic of the next step! (sorry!) But after the paint dries, I like to distress it with sandpaper.  I do not like to use the electric sander on this part, darn no power tools! I just use a sanding block, you can get them at any hardware store.

After the paint dries, I like to go over it with a protective coating. It helps to keep the furniture from getting scratched up! This particular brand is my favorite, it coats really well, and when dries looks fantastic!

This is what it looks like after the protective coating goes on.

Here is what it looks like after it is all done! Freshly sanded, spray painted, painted, distressed, and primed! I love the hardware on this night stand, it's so elegant!

And after all of the hard work, it's time to take a break in the top of your sand turtle!