A Tale Of Two Nightstands
And it begins…the One Room Challenge master bedroom makeover! In true Angie form I was ready to dive in, head first, hammers and crow bars swinging to take out the old closet, build in a new one…oh….and while I’m at it install new floors and make a new light fixture. All while holding down a job and going through one of the busiest Etsy shop weeks I’ve ever had (more on that later…but since I do like to tease…it may be related to a certain glossy magazine feature…eeeeek!). Anywho, Colby talked me down from my crazy ledge and I started small. With our hot mess of a nightstand situation. You may have seen this sneak peak of my side of the nightstand on Instagram:
But I’m here to share with you the full monty. Our nightstands in all their green glory! Boom…nightstand drop:
And the best part of this little nightstand makeover?! They now match! Cue up the band, folks!
I am so smitten with the new nightstands. It makes it hard to believe that we’ve lived with these hot messes, who would give Snooki a run for her money, for too long.
So here’s the tale of our two nightstands. I had been searching for a matching pair for WAY too long. Pretty much for the last four years. I really wanted something old, made of real wood, and round since our bedroom is so small and I feared bulky, square-ish stands would make our room feel even smaller when next to the big ol’ dressers. And the kicker…I didn’t want to pay more than $50 for each one. Tall order. One day we were in Home Goods looking for a rug but came across these beauties.
They weren’t exactly what I wanted but they would do. They were $69 each but had a few dings and scratches on the finish. I didn’t mind them since I wanted to refinish the stands anyway, but I’m never one to shy away from saving money! So I asked a manager if they could drop the price a smidge because of the damage and they took 10% off. Not too shabby.
If you remember in the mood board for this little…errr…more like major, master bedroom overhaul, I wanted to go green on the nightstands. Since we live in Maine and spray paint season is still about another two months away, if we’re lucky, I opted to chalk paint the stands instead. Not gonna lie…I’m pretty much chalk paint obsessed these days. I chose Annie Sloan’s Chalk Paint in Antibes Green.
I was a little scared of the color at first, but I pulled up my big brave girl pants and went for it. Worst comes to worst, and I hated it (which didn’t happen by the way), it’s just paint. I could always paint over it. So I slapped on a coat of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Paris Grey, thinking maybe it would tone it down a bit. Then layered on a coat of Antibes Green and waxed the whole thing (for more details and a how-to on chalk painting check out this post about our living room end table).
It was love a first sight. Oh that green! I just want to make out with it I love it so much! I had barely finished waxing the stands when I started moving them into our bedroom. Along with a pair of brass lamps that Colby bought me for Christmas. Hashtag the good husband. But I may have picked them out myself. And I may have photo texted them to him. And I may have included a note like “opening these at Christmas would make your wife SOOOO happy”. And I may have followed up with him a week later asking if he bought those lamps because if he didn’t I was going to go get them myself. True story. Shameful.
The nightstands were looking uber naked, like at least wrap a towel around them and have some modesty kind of naked. So it was time to style. Confession time. I am no stylist. Builder, renovator, furniture refinisher, wood worker, crafter…yes. But a stylist?! Heck no! So when it comes to these parts of the project, here’s what I do. I raid our house. I walk around the house grabbing EVERYTHING that could look remotely good in the space I’m decorating.
And then I just play. Raid some more, play some more, until I finally get something that is first and foremost functional and secondly looks good. For our nightstands, we’re both very much nighttime readers. So I really wanted to incorporate stacks of books on those bottom shelves. Colby’s side includes books on our reading challenge list (the Times top 100 books list) that I’ve read but he still needs to conquer….accompanied with Target clearance ceramic animals.
And my side is all my “beach reads”. You know. The ones that you can devour in a couple hours while soaking up the sun. The ones that sometimes you’re just a little bit ashamed to read but they’re always a good time. Nicholas Sparks books are that way for me. The book spines for my book collection were a little all over the place and looked totally crazy spines out. So I reversed them, spines in, for a more muted and cohesive look. It’s my new favorite trick by the way. The books were accompanied by a little wooden sand piper I found on my most recent “I need accessories” exploration at the local antiques store, along with my little jewelry box from Target that I’ve had forever.
As for the tops of each nightstand, I wanted something similar for both sides but not identical. Like I said, I’m no stylist, but I have developed a go-to nightstand styling combo thanks to reading ridiculous amounts of styling tips from Emily Henderson. Here’s Angie’s no-fail nightstand styling rule: Ground it (like a picture frame in the back either leaning on the stand or hanging on the wall), add some height (like with the brass lamps), balance out the height (with the plants), and add a final horizontal piece to bridge the who “heights” (like the horn on Colby’s stand and the egg/jewelry tray on my side). Done. Except for the art part.
This was one of those quintessential what comes first, the art or the frame situations. In this case I chose frame since I had already bought these frames for another art hanging project. But I liked them so much in our room that I commandeered them. With empty frames I scoured our home looking for potential art. I bought a Rifle Paper cities calendar this year to hang in my Etsy office and intended to turn it into art after I was done. But given that it’s April, the months of January through March were up for grabs.
I called dibs on the Savannah page leaving Colby with the options of Vegas or a snow covered New York. Considering we’re both soooo sick of snow, ice and cold and can’t wait for it all to melt, he naturally chose Vegas. So I hacked off the calendar part and framed up our new pieces. Colby’s side:
And my side (note the grounding, height, balance the height, and add a horizontal piece combo):
And here’s our bedroom now from another angle so you can see that stenciled wall and white chalk painted Ikea Malm dressers (minus the art…I hadn’t quite figured that out by this point).
One of the reasons I chose green for our nightstands was to tie into the green in the lilies on the dresser. I loved the greens in that little faux bouquet and wanted to bring them in elsewhere. While I do love the green nightstands, I’m still not in love with that stenciled wall. Just “in like” with it. It kind of feels like the wall and the nightstands are competing with each other. I’m debating painting over it and would love any thoughts/help. Yay or nay? Keep the stencil or paint over it? I’m totally leaning paint over it.
Pssst…Just a reminder that our bedroom makeover is part of a challenge issued by Calling It Home and a mess of other awesome bloggers called the One Room Challenge. Challenge accepted. Be sure to check out all the other participants in week two as they overhaul one room in their homes. Next up for us…closet building…YES! Plans are made, storage baskets are on order, and construction begins this weekend!
Okay, wait a minute, so where did the brass lamps come from though? Cuz I love them too, and I wouldn’t mind texting someone and telling them I’d be happy to open them as a present. I don’t have a husband to text but I’m sure I could find someone to text about it…..
What a great color, I love it!
I love the calender pages as art, so cute!
Looks great, Angie! Great color for spring, too : ]
I love the story about the brass lamps…I have been known to be “shameful” too! 🙂 I LOVE the nightstands! That green is amazing!!!
I love the shade of green that you picked. Your styling is great, too. Looking fresh in this room.