DIY Vintage Nightstand

This DIY project was partially a gift, but I ended up getting to help out with the end process. A certain someone took note of my 7524805714 pins of distressed mint green furniture and took action… :)

DIY Vintage Distressed Nightstand

All this project calls for is an old piece of furniture (in my case a nightstand), sandpaper, an old candle (or candle wax), primer, and paint!

1. Find your old nightstand. (Try Goodwill or a garage sale!)

2. Clean it with a wet rag and dry it.

3. Detach all handles.

4. Sand down the entire piece of furniture using medium grit sand paper followed by fine grit sandpaper (if you’re lucky enough to have an electric sander, this step would be much quicker). Also, you can create notches, rough patches, etc. with a knife if you want.

5. Wipe away all excess dust with wet rag and dry.

6. Using an old candle- or piece of candle- wax all the edges of your furniture and any other places you want the wood to show through.

7. Now, paint your entire piece of furniture with interior latex primer. Allow the primer to dry (most primer dries relatively fast).

8. Once the primer is dry, paint the piece with the color of your choice (my paint is just Walmart interior flat paint, color- Norwegian Vintage Green). Since you’re going for a distressed look, only one layer of paint is necessary. Let the paint dry.

9. Using fine grit sandpaper, scrape off the paint where you previously rubbed the wax (you can scrape off as little or as much as you’d like, depending on how distressed you want your piece). For this part, make sure you sand lightly. You can also use the back edge of a butter knife to distress smaller areas that are difficult to do with sandpaper.

10. Don’t forget to reattach your handles! (if your original handles are not-so-cute try Hobby Lobby for some cuter ones!)

And there you are. Your own custom-made vintage nightstand- of course much cheaper than any you’d see at an antique store :)

-A