A Sore Back and a Great Discovery

Last week at the Goodwill I spied this nightstand. It wasn't exactly the style I was looking for but I really liked the shelving. And it was only $5.99!

Plus it had a twin. (His and Hers.)

They were really solid with dove tail joins made by Drexel.

The only problem was that the paint job had seen better days. It was in various stages of chipping to showcase all it's previous colors: seafoam green, dusty blue, peach and country yellow. (Gotta love that '80s decor!)

I've painted a few pieces of furniture before but they all started out as stained wood. These nightstands were the first time I've had to deal with peeling paint on a piece of furniture. So there were things that I did correctly and things that I would do differently next time. (In other words, things that made me sing the hallelujah chorus and things that made me rant and rave like a lunatic!)

Sanding the nightstands was a huge pain. (In my back!) The tops were fun since I was able to use my brand new electric sander. The rest of the areas I had to sand by hand which wasn't easy when I had to go through so many layers of paint. I probably should have used a paint stripper. Or at least put the furniture on a table to sand so I wasn't crouched over like Gollum for the excessive amount of time it took to finish sanding each piece. (By the end of the day my posture wasn't the only thing Gollumlike....)

Kilz primer. Oh. My. Goodness! If they had a t-shirt that said "I love Kilz Primer!" I would wear it! Normally I use another brand of primer which shall remain nameless. (Krylon) I had heard good things about Kilz but thought that all primers were basically the same. (Yes, my poor little naive self...) Kilz spray primer is not actually sold with the other spray paint. You find it among the gallon paint cans. I bought it at Walmart and it was a dollar more than the Krylon primer.

It TOTALLY blew me away! The can felt like it was using jet propulsion it was so powerful. The paint had such great coverage. Here is a nightstand after only one coat of primer. I was VERY pleased with this.

I prefer spray painting items because it's fast and you can get an even coverage. But for some reason I had forgotten this little fact when I decided to use Behr Glossy White in a can (which I already had) with a brush. (Again with the unnatural crouching attempting to paint every crevice.)

I removed the hardware on the drawers and filled the holes with wood filler. I had planned on drilling new holes but the drill was having issues with its charger. So of course that put everything having to do with the drawers on hold. (Only slightly irritating.)

Even though I need a back massage and the project isn't finished yet, I'm happy with how it looks so far. I'm envisioning an awesome reveal! Stay tuned for phase two...