When we first moved to Duluth, I was searching for a dresser for our little girls room. We came across a dresser that I thought would be perfect, but once we got it in her room, it was just way to small for the space. Space is something we aren't used to having!
Luckily we found and refinished the perfect piece for her room (this mid century modern dresser with hair pin legs! ) and this smaller one got booted out. Now I envisioned finding a similar size dresser to make a mismatched nightstand set, and it didn't take long before we found the perfect one!
Small vintage or antique dressers are perfect as nightstands because they are tall enough for the height of our modern beds, and they provide so much extra storage! I loved that the empire dresser has a more masculine look, while the antique dresser has a feminine feel; perfect for those fun his and her nightstands!
We prepped them for paint by lightly sanding and thoroughly cleaning each piece. Head on over
here to see how we prep each and every piece to get the best finish. Then we sprayed on multiple coats of our homemade chalk paint (
recipe here ) in Urban Bronze by Sherwin Williams using our
favorite paint sprayer.
Once everything was dry we sealed the chalk paint with a coat of
Varethane Polyurethane in Satin and let it dry again. The poly makes it so much easier to work with the glaze as it can't soak into the poly like it would the chalk paint.
I mixed up a small batch of black glaze following the instructions on the jar, using black latex paint and
clear glaze. Then brushed it onto a small area (I did 2 drawers at a time, or one side) with a cheap brush. Using a baby wipe, I wiped off the glaze, going with the grain of the wood, in one long swipe from edge to edge. Once I liked the look I let it start to dry. After a few minutes I went back and lightly dry brushed the edges where I wanted the glaze a bit darker. If it got too dark, I would very lightly wipe it off until I achieved the perfect look.
To protect the new finish we sprayed on 3 more coats of
Varethane Polyurethane in Satin. I seriously love this poly! It doesn't yellow over light colored finishes and it provides such a durable finish!
We painted the hardware in the same finish as the dresser, making sure to remove the hardware and paint them separately.
Glazing furniture is the perfect way to bring out the character and add even more charm to the finish. I couldn't be happier with these mismatched nightstands! If we didn't already have these amazing
apothecary style nightstands for our room, we would be keeping these mismatched ones!
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