Painting Has Begun

The painting has begun.  I have been itching to start painting furniture pieces for quite some time and the process has finally started.  How exciting!!!

This is my first completed cabinet.

Last fall, my hubby was driving down the road when he spotted this nightstand.  Screech!  I could hear him hitting the brakes from here (just kidding!).  The nightstand was free on the side of the road and he thought it was an antique so he stopped to pick it up.  Unfortunately, it turned out that it wasn't old at all but it was cute all the same.  This would be a future project.  

This is how it looked when it followed him home.

I have to be honest, I'm not sure if I even remember seeing it although he insists I did.  I was recently looking for a starter project to make sure I felt confident in painting the bigger, more important pieces of furniture.  He suggested I paint the nightstand in the garage.  What nightstand?  I'm sure he thought I was nuts.  It's not like me to forget about furniture of any kind.  These photos were taken just before I began my sanding.

I painted it an off white and it looked extremely plain.   I hadn't reattached the knobs yet but it looked boring and needed a little pizzazz.  I wish I had taken a photo at that stage of the process.  I decided to distress it a bit.  I've had experience in distressing on wooden snowmen, etc. that I made many years ago but never on furniture.  You work hard to get that perfect finish then turn around and destroy it.  My hubby was scared for me.  I told him I was a bit scared myself.  But at that moment I decided to live dangerously ha ha.

I used the palm sander prior to painting but decided to hand sand when I began distressing it.  I figured it would allow me to control how much paint was removed and to do it slowly until I obtained the look I was trying to achieve.  The palm sander would have worked fine too but I wanted to make sure the original stain remained.

I love how the stain shows through.

I'm pleased with how it came out.  My hubby really liked the distressing once it was completed.  Now I just need to figure out where to put it.  That falls into the category of redecorating which we're currently working on.

More furniture is being worked on and I'm hoping I'll finish a dresser this weekend.  Since time is not on our side right now, we have decided to work as a team.  My hubby will sand and I will paint.  That way we can both be working on something at the same time.

Thanks for stopping by to see what I'm up to.  I hope this inspires you to go and paint or create something yourself although most of you are already way ahead of me.  I'm always in awe of all the creativity out there in Blogland.

~ Kelly ~