**A Step-by-Step Guide to Upcycling an Old Nightstand**

Upcycling is a great way to breathe new life into old furniture, and with the right tools and materials, you can transform an outdated nightstand into a beautiful piece of decor for your bedroom. In this article, we will follow along as our DIY expert transforms an old nightstand into a stunning work of art.

**Preparation is Key**

Before we begin, let's make sure our workspace is clear and clutter-free. We'll be working with spray paint, stain, and polyurethane, so it's essential to cover any surfaces that we don't want the paint or stain to land on. This includes our workbench, tools, and any surrounding furniture. Once we've covered everything, we can start preparing the nightstand for its makeover.

**Adding Color**

The first step in transforming our old nightstand is to add some color. We'll use spray paint to give it a fresh new look. Our expert suggests covering all surfaces except where we want the color to stay visible. This will help us achieve an even, uniform coat of paint and prevent any mistakes from happening.

As we spray the paint, our expert reminds us to keep moving and not let the paint sit in one spot for too long. This is crucial in preventing uneven coloration and ensuring a smooth finish. We'll also go with the grain of the wood to get the best results and bring out the natural beauty of the nightstand.

**Applying Stain**

While our first coat of spray paint dries, we'll move on to applying stain. This step is essential in adding depth and dimension to our nightstand. Our expert suggests using a 2-in-1 product that combines stain and polyurethane for a faster and more efficient process. By dipping the brush into the product and applying it with a 45-degree angle, we'll be able to achieve an even, seamless finish.

It's essential to keep the brush moving while applying the stain, as stillness can cause uneven coloration. Our expert advises us to go with the grain of the wood to get the best results and bring out the natural beauty of the nightstand. As we apply the stain, we'll also blot away any excess product that may have dripped onto surrounding areas.

**Adding Polyurethane**

Once our stain is dry, it's time to add a coat of polyurethane. This step will protect our nightstand from scratches and spills, and give it a glossy finish. Our expert suggests using a sponge brush for this portion of the project, as it will provide more control over the amount of product applied.

As we apply the polyurethane, our expert advises us to work in small sections, using a wet-on-wet technique to blend the edges smoothly. This ensures that there are no visible lines or marks where the stain and polyurethane meet. We'll also use our fingers to manipulate the brush and create an even finish.

**Adding Stain to Legs**

Our expert notes that we need to add a little bit of stain polyurethane to each leg of the nightstand, as they will be visible once the project is complete. By doing so, we can ensure that the legs are cohesive with the rest of the piece and don't stick out.

**Adding Finish Touches**

Now that our nightstand has dried, it's time to add some finishing touches. We'll remove any tape from surrounding areas where we applied spray paint, and start staining again. Our expert reminds us to be patient and gentle when applying stain, as stillness can cause uneven coloration. If we notice any mistakes, we can use a Q-tip or damp cloth to touch them up quickly.

Once our second coat of stain is dry, we'll put on the hardware and style our beautiful new nightstand. With its fresh new look and glossy finish, this old nightstand is sure to be the centerpiece of your bedroom.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enHi, I'm Jenna, an upholster and designer.And today I'm going to show you how torefinish a bad paint job.Anyone that knows me knows that I love agood paint job.However, there are some projects that arenot meant to be painted, especially somethingthat is solid wood, like this nightstandhere.It's a great mid-century modern piece, solidin its craftsmanship.Got these beautiful antique brass handles.Ooh, it's a Stanley.So it's actually a mid-century modern piece.It's got great details, solid wood, andwe'll be able to strip back all of the shabbychic ness and reveal its beautiful wood.To get started, we got to remove thatbeautiful brass hardware.Grab yourself a Phillips head, screwdriver,these beautiful brass babies off of here.All right, Now that the hardware is off,let's start stripping.And the product we're going to be usingtoday is citrus strip.This product is really easy to use.We're going to brush it on the citrus strip,and you're going to go with the grain of thewood. Don't go against the grain.Go with it. Helps the product.Get in there, Get it all the little crooksand crannies.Now, with this particular piece, because ofthe chalk paint, I can actually see the woodgrain. However, sometimes with a paintedproject you won't be able to see the woodgrain and in that case, just put a nice evencoat.It usually is though, left to right, top tobottom.So it's a pretty safe bet to just go alongthis way.We're going to put a nice even coat alongall of the painted surfaces and we're goingto leave it on for a half an hour and let itdo its thing.As you can see, I'm not really being toogentle about getting the product on nonpainted areas and that's because it's verygentle to the wood and it's actuallyconditioning it.So you won't need to worry about tape asyou're applying the citrus strip.You'll see some areas that may be dry alittle faster and that's just because itdoesn't have the same thickness of theproduct on.So you just want to add a little bit more,the thicker the better with this stuff.Now that I've got the main part of thenightstand completely covered in citrusstrip, we're going to set this to the sideand do the drawers.Now, I might have to put more than one coatof the citrus strip on these drawers becauseby the looks of things, this is a latexpaint on the front of the drawers and not achalk paint, which chalk paints definitelyeasier to get off than a latex.But either way, I can definitely do it.You'll learn that with every furniture flipproject.Just like dogs, each one's got a differentpersonality.And when you're stripping drawers, youdefinitely want to make sure to not only getthe front of the drawers, but also theunderneath lip that you'll see when you pullout the drawers.And again, you don't have to tape anythingoff because this product is not going todamage the wood by any means anything.It's just going to moisturize it.Now that I've got all the surfaces coveredwith the citrus strip, we're going to leavethem for 45 minutes and let the product doits job.This is looking really good.The stripper is doing its job.See how it's breaking down the latex paint,making it crinkle up to scrape off thestripper. We're going to use this 15 and onepainter's tool.We're going to use the scraper part andright here on the stripper and go with thegrain of the wood.Look at that.Look at that. Woodgrain.Looks so good.The latex paint is coming off way easierthan I thought.This is really good sign.This is going to be a beautiful nightstand.So satisfying.So like I suspected originally, the latexpaint is going to take multiple coats, getoff all of the paint from the wood.But we definitely are at a good startingpoint.I'm going to circle back to the drawers andget the stripper off of the main part of thenightstand.Oh.I'm very pleased how this stripper is workingon the chalk paint.However, I do believe it will be in our bestinterest to put on another coat of the citrusstrip and let it do its magic one finaltime.Because the chalk paint's been a littlestubborn coming off.We're going to actually wrap it now withplastic, and it'll just help keep themoisture locked in and allow the stripper todo a little bit better job this time around.Now that this has a second coat, we're goingto move on to the drawers.All right. It's been an hour.Looking good.Gross, but good.Okay, let's start scraping the second coat.Definitely did the trick.Now I just got to get this surface nice andclean and free of all of the stripper.You know, now that I'm scraping off thesecond coat of stripper, I'm noticing thatthis is real wood, and this is not.Which sometimes happens when you're flippingfurniture.You discover things that you didn't realize,you know, pre project.Now this 15 and one painters tool will onlytake you so far in the stripping process.So I like to keep on hand these cheaptoothbrushes that you can get online for thisvery endeavor.I got off most of the stripper from the faceof the draw.I'm going to use baby wipes to get more ofthis gunk off quickly.Now we're going to do one last cleaningbefore we stain.And for that we're going to use TSP.Just a heavy duty cleaner.Great for painting projects.This final cleaning step is setting you upfor success.Nothing stops a good project faster thanrandom debris.We want the stain and the polyurethane toadhere to the wood as best as possible.Yeah, The front of these drawers aredefinitely two different materials.This is not going to take the stain.This sometimes happens with furniture flips.You got to pivot.But I have a creative plan to fix this.All right, let's continue stripping the restof the nightstand.Now, this is definitely one.This is stripping very nicely.It's got a beautiful grain to it.These are going to turn out rad.Definitely not going to have to do any morestripper on the body of this nightstand.When you're scraping, it definitely helps tokeep your scraper at a 45 degree angle alongwith the grain of the wood.So gross, but worth it.Take a couple baby wipes and let's see wherewe're at on this.Okay, I got this piece completely cleaned upand then let it dry.And as you can see, the wood grain is beyondbeautiful.Now we're going to give it one last finalcleaning with some TSP, just like we did withthe base of the drawers.See what I mean? Still coming off.We're going to slowly clean each one of thefeet of the nightstand.He got the entire body of the nightstandwiped down with a heavy duty cleaner.The TSP. And now we're going to tackle whatto do with the two different types ofsurfaces on the face of the doors.All right. This is looking dry and great.Nice and clean. Ready to go.Now that we've discovered that these are twodifferent surfaces, we're going to paint thispart instead and then stain the two squaresalong with the body of the nightstand.I've taped off the area where we don't wantthe spray paint to land.And for an extra good measure, we're goingto use a clear coat, acrylic spray paint tospray around the seam of the tape.This will make sure that the spray paintitself does not leak underneath onto the areawhere we want to put the stain.You don't need a whole lot, just a littlebit around the seams.While the clear coat dries.I'm going to wrap the rest of the body ofthe draw.We've got all of the surfaces covered wherewe don't want the spray paint to land.Let's add some color.This is looking great.While this one dries, I'm going to go grabthe other drawer.Getting down to the last step, we are goingto add a stain polyurethane mix.Pretty much one and done.This is a really great product if you're ona tight deadline or if you're just wanting topossibly skip a step on your DIY.A lot of times when you're doing refinishingwood projects, you do a stain, allow it todry and then a polyurethane.But with this product, it's a 2 in 1, soit's definitely going to cut down on the DIYtime. You just want to dip in about an inchof the brush into the product and we're goingto go with the grain of the wood.And as you apply the product, you want to doit at a 45 degree angle with the brush,making sure to keep a wet look edge, whichmeans that you never want it to be drying asyou're going. The reason I'm doing thesewide brush strokes is, again, I'm trying tokeep the product moving and soaking into thegrain and not allowing it to dry in a puddlein one section.So if you see a part drying, you want tokeep it moving because the worst thing youcan do is let stain sit in a particular partof the wood.That's how you get unevenness in thecoloration of the stain.With the stain, it's pretty much you justwant to keep the product moving.And that's why you also want to go with thewood grain because we're trying to get thestain deep down into those wood grains sothat it brings out the different hues of thewood grain. You see how nice and even thatlooks.So we got the top nice and go and like,look, you can't even see the brush marks.If you do get a little stain that's dry on,you just add a little more product and workit. Kind of rewet itself.The woodgrain goes down, so we're going togo down with the woodgrain.I'm looking around for any drip marks,places where stain is gooped up held up alittle extra where I don't need it.Up to this point, we've basically beenignoring these legs because they're notreally anything special.However, because they are visible, I amgoing to add a little bit of the stainpolyurethane to each so that they, you know,overall are cohesive with the entire project.And also don't, you know, stick out on theirown because they are not the main event.This is looking really good.Now we're going to go back to the drawers.Spray paint on the drawer face is dry.So we're going to remove the tape and startstaining.Gotta love a nice.Straight paint line.Look at that.Perfect. And now we're going to apply some ofthe stain.Polyurethane. We're not going to use the bigbrush for this portion since we have verylittle real estate to cover.So I'm going to opt for a sponge brushinstead.And we're going to do our best not to getthe stain on the paint so we don't have to goback and do any touch ups.We're seeing some parts that's got extrastain on it that I don't want.You don't want it to dry. So I'm just goingto blot it.Get all the extra off.A Q-Tip.You use it to touch up some of the areas Igot stain on.So I'm actually using my two fingers,pushing some pressure on the sponge brush tohelp give it a little pressure.You don't have as as much manipulation witha foam brush.So sometimes you got a MacGyver that once Iget all of the product manipulated, like Iwant it to be all spread out, even I'm goingto touch up my edges again with the Q-tips.So if you get some of the product dried anduneven in one spot, you can always dampen acloth or a paper towel really quick and justeven it out.So here's a nice visual for you.No stain and polyurethane stain andpolyurethane.This is looking great.I'm going to go grab the second drawer.Second drawer.Let's do this.I do this stuff every day, and I'm stillmaking mistakes.So if you're feeling stressed out whileyou're doing your furniture project.Just remember to halt.Take a deep breath and regroup.Okay, This is looking really good.We're going to allow it to dry, put.On the hardware.And then style this nightstand.If you liked this project and want to seemore, give it a thumbs up and follow HGTV.\n"