I had these really old and boring night stand tables that I really really wanted to get rid of and replace. I had been really inspired by the simplistic gingham patterns that I have been seeing online so I decided to give my night stands a fun makeover! Let me walk you through how I transformed my old nightstands into cute gingham French country side table night stands!
Note: I am writing this post a few months after completing this project, so I am doing my best to remember the exact steps and things I did!
Supplies
- Two old night stands (These are Threshold from Target from years ago)
- Primer
- Farrow and Ball Lulworth Blue
- Athens Blue (to make the darker squares)
- Painters tape
- Minwax Water Based Polycrylic in Clear Gloss
- Paintbrushes
- Pencil
- Cardstock or ruler
- Anthropologie Knotted Knobs
Step 1
Sand and prime the nightstands. I did not sand or prime my drawer fronts, just the bodies. I wanted to see the natural color of the wood for my non-painted squares. If you don’t like the original color of your dresser then I would recommend painting the drawer fronts white before moving on to the blue.
Step 2
Paint the nightstand bodies in Lulworth Blue. I think I did two coats and then 2 coats of the Minwax.
Step 3
Drawer time! First, I taped off the center of the drawers and painted the outer trim in Lulworth Blue.
Step 4
Measure your drawer fronts to see how many squares you can fit. I was able to do two rows of eight, so 16 squares total. They weren’t perfectly square due to the size of my drawer front, but it still looks great!
Do some math to figure out how many squares you will have and their size.
Using hard cardstock paper or a ruler, draw a line with pencil to create the two rows. Draw a line with pencil vertically through the middle as well. Draw the rest of the vertical lines based on your calculations.
Step 5
Paint the entire top row and ever other square on the bottom row Lulworth Blue. I might have only done 1 coat for this step.
Step 6
This step is where it gets fuzzy because getting the darker blue color right took so much trial and error and I didn’t exactly take notes, sorry! I first tried just mixing the Lulworth blue with grey and then a black and nothing was happening! It was strange. I believe that I ended up finally mixing Lulworth blue with a lot of Athens Blue until I was happy with the color. I wanted it to be dark enough to look like I had just painted those squares more times with the Lulworth Blue, as gingham textiles look. I used a $5 sample of Athens Blue from Home Depot. You won’t need much so do not get a whole can!
Once you get the color right, paint over every other square on the top row (see below). I believe I only did one coat of this color as well. Then, I did probably two coats of the Minwax on the drawer fronts so everything was protected and glossy.
Step 7
I replaced the handles with these adorable knotted ones from Anthropologie. I know they are for the Kitchen, but who cares. They were so worth it!
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