After reviewing my posts, I noticed that I forgot to post this one. So sorry.
After dropping off my younger daughter at a birthday party and having a few hours to spare, my other daughter and I searched for some thrift stores.
Pulling into the Mission Mart, we both began our search through the aisles. Immediately, I found one of the ugliest night stands that I had ever laid eyes on. The strange thing is that I have been looking for a nightstand to paint for our bedroom. You see, right now my husband is using a nightstand that he bought in Korea years ago. It is a great night stand, but it just doesn't fit into the décor of the rest of the room.
The top of the stand was the worst.
The best part of this makeover challenge was that the nightstand cost only $6.99. That's right, under $7.00. I guess they figured nobody would buy it. All it needs is a little(really a lot) of sanding, some lacquer and chalk paint with a pair of new handles and this nightstand will be transformed. Let's get to work.
Home Depot carries the Martha Stewart line of nickel drawer pulls and knobs. I knew that after using Annie Sloan chalk paint, the nickel would add the necessary bling to the piece.
With my idea in mind, I was ready to start. How ironic was it that the next day, I opened up one of my favorite blogs, Thrifty Chick Décor, and this is what I saw. My idea obviously was not original anymore. That is what is so challenging in this blogging world. Have all the original ideas already been used? I hope not. But here, was a very similar type of pine nightstand with the same feet being recycled. I knew that when my project was done, it would look amazing too.
So back to work. One of the issues with this nightstand
was that the tracks had been used so frequently, that the drawers literally fell into your hands when opened even half way. Mr. Thrifty to the rescue.
He pulled the bottom slide tracks out of the guts of the drawer. First, the back of the stand needed to be removed.
Notice the uneven wearing of the two tracks. The left sides show a narrowing of the track. These ends were located in the frontal area of the nightstand. When you would open the drawer to the narrowing area, it would literally fall in your hands.
After removing the tracks, Mr. Thrifty pulled out the tools and began creating two new drawer tracks.
Here is another view of the worn tracks.
As you see, underneath the drawer is the channel that the track moves on to open and close the drawer. The new tracks needed to move easily through this channel.
The saw table was plugged in and ready to go. The previous tracks were made of pine, which is a soft wood. The Mr. pulled some oak scraps of wood out of his wood pile to replicate the pine tracks. Knowing that the oak is a much harder wood, it will take years before these tracks become worn.
Cuts, cuts, and more cuts.
When completed, holes are drilled in the ends to attach the tracks back to the nightstand frame.
Before actually screwing the tracks back onto the frame, they are dry fitted to make sure they move through the channels with ease.
In the picture below, you can see the newer oak track laid in the channel with the worn pine track laying outside the channel. Notice the left end of the pine piece as opposed to the left end of the newer oak track.
I'm taking pictures as Mr. Thrifty reattaches the tracks to the frame.
A hint that was learned from my grandparents was to soap the track to ease in gliding the drawer in and out of the channel. I recall walking into my grandparents garage prior to buying the house. In a old soup can lay a slivered bar of soap that was placed on the tool bench ready to use as needed.
We keep a bar of travel soap at the hand for all of our garage projects.
Once the tracks are screwed back into the frame, I rubbed the soap on both sides of the newly cut tracks.
Leave the soap shavings on the track and insert the drawer onto the track. Works like a charm.
The nightstand frame is ready to accept the drawers.
Now it is ready to get a heavy sanding prior to painting.
The top is sanded.
Time to remove the old hardware and sand the face of the drawer.
Now it is time to dry fit the new drawer pull. Notice that the holes do not line up with the old hardware placement. Time to pull out the wood putty to fill the old holes.
Using wood putty rather than spackling compound gives more integrity to the wood , even though it is more difficult to sand down when dried. I glob the wood putty into the holes. Wood putty does take longer to dry than spackling compound.
Once dried, sand the putty before deciding the placement of the new handles.
I like to drill the new holes before starting the painting process.
While sanding the left side, I noticed a whole chunk of the bottom had been broken off.
This is the stage where it is so important to take your time. Repairing this gash will set back my time, but very crucial to completing the entire project. The wood putty once again was a perfect match for this imperfection. However, small steps must be taken. Building one layer of wood putty on another will fill in the gap and rebuild the missing area. Here is the first application above.
After two more applications of wood putty and sanding in between, the curve of the wood replicates the other end of the piece.
Now, more sanding to the rest of the piece. I think the mouse sander will be very useful in sanding the remaining parts.
Its getting there. The piece already looks sturdier to me. Maybe because most of that awful stain has been removed.
Once the entire piece is sanded, I will apply a coat of lacquer to the entire piece on all painted areas before the first coat of paint. The lacquer will serve as a primer to close the so called pores of the wood so none of the old stain will leak through the paint.
Because we have had such cold weather here in Alabama, I can't paint this piece. The weather calls for near cold temperatures next week too. As soon as I can paint comfortably in the garage, I will finished this nightstand
Stay tuned for its completion when things thaw around here.
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