Bedside Table Refresh

Hello friends!

Today’s story is about twin bedside tables, how they were separated and then reconnected over 35 years later.

My cousins, Tammy & Alisha had this beautiful French Provential style bedroom furniture that I remember from my childhood. I think the furniture was in Tammy’s room. At some point in my teenage years, their family moved and I somehow got the furniture.

I grew up in a turn of the century home with high ceilings, a long hall down the middle and bullseye molding trim work around the doors and windows. In my teens, a second story was added by busting through the hall ceiling, building stairs and adding two bedrooms, a den and full bath. The room’s ceilings were slanted and parallel to the roof line so I couldn’t have a lot of large furniture. I was able to use one of the bedside tables and the dresser. My mother and I painted them a solid cream color and added white pulls. The desk and second bedside table was painted blue for my brother Tommy’s room.

When I got married, I took the bedside table with me and used it in my master bedroom for several years. My mom moved the dresser into her upstairs bathroom.

I have been slowly (picture a turtle walking) working to update my daughter Mary’s bedroom. I promise that I will share pictures of her room later–but for now, I can only show little bits and pieces. So far, we have painted her walls, added a new headboard and a freestanding mirror.

Mary likes pink, Victorian decor, French Provential, modern, black, tea parties and Anime not to mention her obsession with Disney and Rapunzel from Tangled. Throw all of that at ANY interior designer and they’ll likely turn and walk away. Now you understand the walking turtle pace…

We have searched for months for the perfect beside tables. Nothing we’ve seen online, at stores and on Facebook Marketplace has been what Mary was wanting. She asked for white tables with a little flair and gold knobs or pulls. She was most interested in French Provential but the cost for most of her finds was much more than I was willing, or able, to pay.

One day, as I was in one of my outbuildings, I noticed the old table that had been put there many years ago and forgotten about. I pulled it out and measured it… it would fit perfectly with Mary’s bed and windows. I showed it to Mary and she liked it. I tried to remember where the other twin table was…the one we painted blue so many years ago. I called my mom and she finally discovered it was holding her printer on it. The blue desk was also still upstairs in Tommy’s old bedroom.

So, how to paint them all? For the nightstands, I pulled out my wonderful Dixie Belle chalk paint. I love chalk paint because it will cover most surfaces with little to no prep work, dries very quickly and is economical. A jar of this Dixie Belle chalk paint seems to last forever. Mary had asked for bright white bedside tables so I chose to use Dixie Belle’s Cotton.

First, this furniture was made in 1965 but is not real wood. It is some type of composite but was well made and is much better than the lightweight, faux wood furniture we buy today. I began by lightly sanding the pieces. These were in pretty good condition and I did not have to fill in any cracks or nail holes with spackle (but this is the time where you would do touch ups if your furniture needed it).

After sanding, I began painting the pieces. I used a regular paint brush and applied a coat of paint, sanded and then applied another coat of paint. I was running low on Cotton at the time so used Dixie Belle’s Fluff as a makeshift primer. Sorry to be so confusing!

Below is a photo taken after the blue table was sanded and the first coat of fluff was on.

Here is a photo after the second coat of paint was on both pieces.

I lightly sanded after each coat dried. For this, I used 120 grit sandpaper.

I like using a dust cloth to wipe down the furniture between sanding and painting.

In the photo below, you can see the difference in Dixie Belle’s Fluff (left) and Cotton (right).

If you love anything that’s older, you will realize it costs more money to repair or rehab…along with more time and stress. The original drawer pulls are not sized to work with most of the furniture built today. The spacing of the holes are wider than newer furniture is and it is very difficult to find. I had three options: 1) fill in the holes in the furniture with wood putty and drill new holes to fit whatever we wanted to replace the pulls with; 2) shop online and in antique stores searching for the perfect pulls that fit; or 3) spray paint what we had. I chose #3. Call me cheap, call me lazy but I wanted these tables finished and did not want any setbacks. Plus, they really are pretty and go well with the furniture.

I used Rust-oleum’s Metallic Gold spray paint for the pulls….and they turned out great!

Here’s the finished product!!

Oooh, la, la! What a difference some elbow grease and paint makes!

These tables turned out great and cost only the price of the paint! The tables we had found online were around $260 each. I estimate that these old and forgotten treasures cost less than $10 total to rehab! That is just amazing to me!

We used the money saved to order some beautiful table lamps that Mary wanted but were at a higher price point that I am usually at….so, don’t worry, we spent the money anyway! I can’t wait to pull the room together and share it with you soon.

For now, we have the blue desk:

For you 90’s kids…those are Garbage Pail Kids stickers on the top.

Tommy, what were you thinking?

We’ll tackle this blue desk another day. For now, thank you so much for stopping by Mulch and Paint!

Until next time,

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