~ The Decorated House - Blue French Provincial Nightstands - Makeover

Revisting the French Nightstand Makeover ~
It all began before Sweet Daughter even purchased her home. We shopped a little here and there for at least a year, or two, ahead of time. Setting up a new nest can be expensive and this certainly helped. For Christmas or birthdays she would often ask for things for her one day home and she kept a list of things she would need. When we found a pretty blue and brown comforter set and put it away. That is one of her pillows and the pillow sham in the first picture.

Although blues are beautiful, Sweet Daughter was not that excited about my painting her nightstands blue. She thought black would be just fine. And I'm sure I'll paint them black or white ..... one day. Of course the obvious thing was to paint them white. The bedding has been in her room for a little over a year, so she might want to change things out in another year, and of course since she purchased her home, her rescue lab puppy has arrived in the meantime. But you know he is not allowed on the bed, right? I think Saturday & Sunday's are days of clemency. Sssshhh.... he's not supposed to know.

{Edit: 2011. Cody Puppy is a bit calmer, and now has his own coverlet and is allowed on the bed at his other house. And although he's worth it, he still doesn't get on the Nana's bed. :) }

You've seen this type of nightstand so many times at garage sales, consignment shops and flea markets I'm sure. I did too, unless I was looking for them. Then it seemed they were much harder to find. It was especially difficult to find ones that someone had not already sprayed white including the drawer pulls and marked up quite a bit.

This worked out great! I bought a set that had the nightstands, a headboard & footboard, and 2 different sizes of dressers. Both of the dressers are smaller ones which is perfect for what I needed. She got the nightstands and headboard, and I took the dressers. One of which will be the same Tiffany blue as the other painted one.

The tops looked more like a formica surface than just wood, and was a bit slick. So I sanded them lightly and painted with a white primer so the paint would adhere, and last longer.

(Edit: 2011 These were painted before the blogworld explosion of chalk paint use on furniture. I have not tried it on this type of shiny top surface, but would have been happy if I had that paint when these were painted.)


The only problem I had with this project was the fact that Sweet Daughter's light is quite different in her bedroom than it was in my living room where I painted the nightstands. I don't recall ever having furniture "change" colors on me as much as this blue did. But this was the first time I was so sure of the color and then found it was different at another location.

They appear more blue at her house. Even though they look so good, I used to think I would sneak over there one day and add a touch more green to the blue. But not yet. She might want something else entirely one day anyway.

The drawer pulls were a more simple design than the last ones, and she asked for them to be in a similar finish as her curtain rod. So they were painted with a dull dark pewter metal spray paint and then gold Treasure Gold (rub n buff type product) was added to the top.

It seems like there was a period when we saw more of the French Provincial furniture painted blue. But I haven't seen any in a long time. So this seems kind of new and fresh. I think my daughter is just happy to have something to put the clock on! (Edit: 2011, sure seems like a lot more blue going on since the chalk paint arrived!)

1. Sand lightly as needed.
2. Prime if any surface is slick or you need to cover up old paint.
3. Paint in color of your choice. Slate Blue in this case.
4. I repainted the gold to a softer, more aged gold. (Looks a lot brighter in that last photo than it is in real life. It is a very aged looking gold.)
5. Add as much aging as you wish. I kept this very light handed, and just added a bit of burnt sienna brown to the top and wiped it off. Leaving more at the edges.
6. Topcoated just the very top with a wipe-on polyurethane.
   
7. Added one coat of paste wax on top and buffed.

Happy Weekend!
See Y'All Soon
Donna

See lots of painted makeover treasures for this week at
Miss Mustard Seed's blog.