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Do you need some ideas for how to bring new life to a dated nightstand? Maybe you found one, like we did, at a yard sale or a thrift shop that you want to makeover. You have to see what we did with this old nightstand that we scored at a yard sale for only $10! Watch how we turned it into a beautiful piece of farmhouse decor in this nightstand makeover diy!

Let’s get started!

This is the paint that we chose for this piece because we love the coverage of chalk paint, among other reasons that you can read about below! The color we chose is called Powdered Snow and it’s from 2 Chicks & a Toolbelt. If you order some paint from them, make sure to use my coupon code [ECLECTICTREASURES] for my discount!

chalk paint from Chalky Chicks Furniture paint in the color Powdered Snow

Why use chalk paint on furniture?

That’s a great question! I’ve provided a list of reasons why you might decide to use chalk paint on furniture that you want to paint.

Chalk painting requires no sanding of the furniture prior to painting, most of the time
You also don’t usually have to prime your piece before painting with chalk paint
Chalk paint dries much faster than regular paint
Chalk paint is self leveling which means even if you see streaks while painting, it will still dry flat
You only need a couple of coats of chalk paint on most pieces of furniture
A chalk painted piece of furniture is easily distressed using a sander for the trendy rustic and farmhouse looks that are so hot right now

We were in the sun, so it was literally drying almost as soon as we applied it. We were able to apply two coats to this piece in no time at all. But you do want to make sure to let the paint dry completely in between coats to prevent the first coat from moving around.

someone using a chalk paint brush to paint a brown nightstand with a white chalk paint

What paint brush to use for chalk paint?

The best paint brush to use for chalk painting furniture is a natural bristle brush that is very thick and dense, that will hold a lot of paint.
For smaller pieces like the knob that you will see later, feel free to use a regular paint brush
For dry brushing, like we did on the baskets, with chalk paint, I like to use the chip brushes
See the links below from Amazon for some examples

Here is the nightstand after the first coat of paint. As you can see there is still another coat needed, but the coverage is great already so only one more coat will be necessary.

Then here is the top of the nightstand after the second coat. Doesn’t it look great?! This is one of the main reasons I love chalk paint, because of the excellent coverage!

We kind of skipped a few pictures in between the process here so let me explain what we’ve done. After we finished the second coat, we sanded the edges of the drawers and legs and top to distress the finish. We also added the drawer knob back but I decided on a different one that you will see in the photos coming up.

Next, I added a bit of a white wash to the first wicker basket to tone that color difference down a bit. I really liked how it subdued it.

I always love to add something unique to the pieces that we re-do. This one got a farmhouse calendar image added to the top. I used mod podge to attach it. Afterwards, I used a sander along the edges of the image to distress it a bit and make it blend a little better. Then we sealed it with a polycrylic sealer.

You could kind of see a sneak peak in the picture above of the knob that we decided on instead of the original one. But you can see it fully below. We wanted to tie in the colors in the image to the other parts of the night stand. So, we also did an aqua wash on the wicker drawers.

We chose this glass knob, that was white, but we painted it to match the drawers and barn. I think it ties everything together nicely.

What do you think of this night stand makeover?

I hope you enjoyed this furniture makeover and that it inspires you to makeover a piece of your outdated furniture. Make sure to join our email family to keep up with us each week!