Emerald nightstands

Emerald anyone?  I love how these beauties turned out!  And I love how quick their transformation was.  You see, I am currently working on a china hutch (which will be revealed soon) which is the most time consuming project I have EVER done.  Who knew, but painting out the upper portion of a china cabinet (inside and out) by hand with a brush is tantamount to insanity! So many corners, so many edges, so many faces - so many risks of drips.

So, I needed to treat myself to an easy project, which why inbetween coats of paint on the mammoth china cabinet, I decided to do this cute pair of nightstands!

I picked them up from a neighbor who was updating their bedroom furniture.  They were pretty ugly, but I could see the possibility.  Plus, they were solid wood!

I planned to keep any imperfections straight from the start, so sanding was pretty much just a good scuff, I didn't go deep and try and remove any blemishes.  After wiping down all of the dust, I removed the cupboard doors and hardware.  I realized that they looked better without the little doors, so I just threw them away and filled the holes where the hinges had been.

I used a coat of primer tinted a similar colour, and then I used DIY chalkpaint in a custom colour.  I actually get tint directly from my paint store, and it allows me so much freedom to mix up my own colours.  For these, I started with a forest green paint.  I added a bit of white, and then I also added some turquoise tint.  I had to tweak it once between coats, but the end result is great.  They are actually more green in real life...but SADLY SANTA did not bring me that new camera for Christmas so they look a little blue as all my pictures do.  A kind reader gave me a tip on how to fine tune my settings to get my colour balance right, but I havent tried it yet.  

I lined the drawers with some trendy gray/white paper I picked up from homesense.  It adds just that little bit of detail. 

I gave a super light distressing on some of the edges.  I also glazed over the chalkpaint before I waxed.  I used a black glaze and kept it really light and worked like a lightening bolt as I didn't want it to be too heavy.  I waxed with MINWAX brown wax.  It isnt heavily pigmented so the end result is only subtle and I find I can skip the clear wax as it doesnt tend to stain the paint like some dark waxes can.

I traded out the old 80s hardware for something a bit more glamorous and chic.  Can you see me in the reflection?

And here is the before.  You can see what I mean about the cubboard doors.  They didn't do anything for the 'look' of the nightstands, so I thought they were better off in the bin!