Operation Eyesore

Now that I’ve let your eyes rest for a few days from the neon-ness of my good ol’ nightstand (read more about it back here) that’s been with me since high school, you’re ready for the big reveal.  Now you can REALLY appreciate the nightstand’s new “outfit”.  Ta-da:

Shiver me timbers…thar she blows!  And it’s hard to believe that she looked like this not too long ago.

I can’t say that it took me too terribly long to paint the neon nightstand.  A few hours…max.  I should have done it a LONG time ago.  Maybe back when I was still in high school!  Seriously!  What was I thinking when I picked out colors for my room?!  Clearly I had not been properly introduced to a color wheel back then.

As for the painting process, I started by taking the nightstand outside and removing all of the hardware and the nightstand door.

Then I gave it a light sand using an orbital sander and armed myself with an arsenal of spray paint cans from Valspar.

It took a total of two cans of spray primer to properly cover the neon-ness, but only a can and half of the red to properly coat it.

I just layered on a bunch of thin and even coats, letting the paint coats dry for a solid ten minutes before layering on the next coat.

After an afternoon of spray painting, the nightstand was red.  Really red.  But before I brought it inside, I let it dry for a day making sure the paint was nice and hardened up before re-assembling it all.

Then back on the hinges went…using my super stylish screwdriver.  To this day the floral screwdriver is one of my favorite Christmas gifts from Colby’s mom.  She gets my style…pink and floral-ie.

When it came to adding the door pull, I opted to replace the old wooden one with something a little more stylish.

It’s just a cabinet knob that I picked up for a couple bucks in the hardware aisle in Lowes.

After adding the new door knob, the nightstand was officially overhauled.

After moving in the nightstand of course I had to style it up a little bit.  I added a julep cup and filled it with flowers, white zinnias from our garden.  And also tucked my jewelry box on the shelf along with my current read.

I enjoyed the new nightstand for precisely twenty-eight seconds before I started scheming up future projects…..  Can i slip cover that alarm clock so it’s not hot pink?  Maybe I should replace the lamps with something a bit more stylish?  Maybe something gold?  Or dip dyed?  Should we do an upholstered headboard?  No, it would probably look funny against the window.  Paint it?  It never stops…just ask Colby.  I’m always scheming future projects…and changing my mind about them about a ba-zillion times before I actually pull the trigger and do them.

But back to the awesomeness that is the new red nightstand.  I love how the nightstand subtly plays off the coral, and ever so slightly sideways, pillow.  They’re such perfect complements to each other.  And the red brings in some much needed color to the room without being too overbearing.  The vintage ticking in the duvet cover brings the pattern to the room while the nightstand brings the color.  It’s the perfect storm.

Here’s a view of the nightstand, and the dresser nook, from the other side of the room.  Now that the nightstand is no longer the eyesore in the room, I’m starting to think that the “eyesore” title now belongs to the Ikea dressers.  But I love those dressers…especially the makeup/jewelry dresser.  So they might need a little Ikea hack in the near future.  Some paint…new hardware…the usual.  But I’ll probably wait until after we floor the room with wide pine boards since that will totally change the dynamic of the room.

Ahhhh…red nightstand.  You’re so pretty!  And seriously?!  Why did I wait so long to do this?!

I’m not gonna lie…I may have petted the red nightstand and whispered sweet nothings to it in the middle of the night.  And woken up in the morning and wished it “good morning beautiful” and also tucked it in at night.  That’s just what Angie’s do!

Pssst…So next week I’m officially kicking off fall with a week dedicated to fall related projects and posts!  I love that fall has officially arrived!  I love fall and all…but I REALLY love that it’s the gateway season to harsher seasons…like winter!  I heart thee winter!  Bring on the snow!  I know…crazy talk…please keep reading my blog…I won’t bring up winter again…I swear…you still out there?!