Nightstand Nightmare

First of all, let me just say that this was the longest project EVER. It's been sort of a hectic summer around here but even considering that I never would have thought that refinishing a couple of nightstands would take over two months. That's right. TWO MONTHS. So lame. Loren and I picked these babies up the first weekend in June.


I finally got started working on them and planned to go through the normal refinishing process: sand, prime, paint. I sanded and then put on the primer. I figured I was cruising right along. This is when things started to go wrong. I put the first coat of paint on and when I came back into the garage the next day there were these weird bubbly yellow spots all over the two pieces of furniture. I didn't really know why the spots were there so being sort of lazy, I figured I'd just try to put the second coat on over it and see how that worked out. Luckily I only tried this lazy solution on one drawer front because it didn't work. I then sent some time pouting about this failure.



After doing some investigating, I realized that I had used the wrong primer. I was using this cabinet and trim paint which is a strange mix of oil and latex paint so it had a reaction to the latex only primer. At least that's what I think happened. But after Loren sanded things back down again (he's so sweet because I HATE sanding) and I used good ol' KILZ primer things worked out just perfect. No weird yellow bubble spots.

The finishing touch I wanted to put on the nightstands was to put some chevron stripes on the top surface. I messed with the painters tape for what seemed like forever and I just couldn't get it right. I think it's partially because the edges of the top aren't perfectly straight. They have that eighties curve in a few spots including the front so it was tricky to line it up right. And honestly, after all the work that had already gone into these suckers I didn't have the patience to mess with it much more. So, horizontal stripes won out.

That was it! FINALLY, they were done. I really like them now but it did take some time to get used to the white furniture. This was the first time I've ever had white furniture but it's seems to add a nice touch of light in the guest bedroom where everything is dark. The longer they're in there the more I like 'em.

Anyone else had a project full of problems? Or something you thought you just never end? What do you think of the white furniture? Share in the comments below. :)