The Good, The Bad, and The Fugly: Fun Nightstand Redo

Shocker alert! I actually finished something I planned to do. No, hell has not yet frozen over and I haven't seen any pigs flying past my office window, but it still somehow happened. (It's more than I can say for Jeff's blanket. Sorry babe, any day now it'll be done, promise!)

I keep getting super pumped looking at all the fun that is "crafty blogland" and they actually have a way of making me feel like I could do some of that stuff myself. I'm telling you, it's true! So I ran to the DI and scoped out the furniture section, just sure I'd find an awesome hidden treasure aaaaaand....nada. Crap... There were a couple of desks and some entertainment centers but nothing I could use for my pretty love plant. Much sadness :( I couldn't give up after one DI, though, so I went to another one and Voila! A sturdy little nightstand that looked nice and tacky on the outside, but with plenty o' potential. I just fell in love with the lines. The little criss crossy parts on the top drawer, the way the corners are flat (?...no idea how to describe it), extra storage, and I tidy little price tag of $15. With a renewed excitement I made off to the Home Depot for hardware and paint.

Ain't she a beaut?

I didn't get a picture with the hardware on so here's the loveliness that was happening on the drawers.

I have to disclaimer that I probably spent a tad more than most of my craft blog idols do on their projects. BUT, remember this is my very first project. I now have all kinds of starter stuff I can use for upcoming ideas so they'll get progressively cheaper. I ended up purchasing 2 cans of Rustoleum black gloss spray paint, a nice paint brush, a small can of polyurethane, and some simple silver drawer pulls. I spent the most ridiculous amount of time mulling over which pulls to buy but I think I made the best choice.The plan was just to paint the whole thing black and then do some distressing to bring out the details of the lines. Maybe...to line the drawers with some cute fabric too. But then I saw a great blog where someone modge podged wall paper onto shelves and the lightbulb went off. Duh..paper. So off to the Target I went (because I knew they would have cute wrapping paper) and they did! I got a great black and white damask pattern. I actually did already have some modge podge that I got to make Jeff's party scrapbook (Aww man, project number 2 for him I haven't finished. Girlfriend FAIL.) so I didn't spend anything there. I did decide to make it a little easier on myself with some spray adhesive though.
Thinking my plans are set and I should be done now? Ha ha! You obviously don't know me very well. My brain just cannot settle on one plan from start to finish. I happened to take a look at...you guessed it...another craft blog (I might have a bit of a problem) and someone stencilled the CUTEST design on the front of their dresser. *squeal* It's too much for me to handle really. So I thought I would so something similar to mine. Then I remembered I have zero stuff for stenciling. Hmm...more shopping? Tempting as it was, I had another epiphany that helped keep my bank account from crying. I took a picture of a branch I found online and a picture of a bird I found in Word. I put them together and printed it out. I cut that out and traced it onto some of the wrapping paper. I decided to add some butterflies to the drawer for good measure too. I glued those puppies on and modgepodged the crap out of them. Then I covered everything with a little polyurethane and tada! A table I was proud to actually have someone else see. So without further ado, here are my after pics. Next thing is to make my flowerpot look just as cute. Eventually I want this corner that the table is in to look great! I need to get going on some curtains, a little wall art, and somewhere to store my mountains of yarn (that I conveniently cropped out of the pictures...he he). Stay tuned after the "after" pics to see links to all of my inspirations. :)

I Heart Modge Podge!

This little guy makes me happy

I'm not sure why this picture looks so shiny, but it's not so bad in real life, I promise. :)

I love how the ugly finish below the paint comes through the distressing looking all warm and golden.

Inspirations:

The Shanty2Chic blog was my first inspiration. Really you can take your pick of any one of the amazing pieces of furniture they've redone. I'm inspired by them all!

The adorable birdy inspiration came from this link. I follow both the blog where I saw it and the guest who wrote the post's blog now.

And wouldn't you know it, for the life of me I can't find the shelves I was talking about. They were really cute with some striped paper modge podged onto them! Deeelite-ful. If I come across the link someday I'll post it up here.