Bedroom Set Makeover

We have been married for 10 years now and have never had a bedroom set. The expense of Grad School and the inconvenience of moving from state to state made it impractical to get one. We have a random collection of mismatched dressers and nightstands that we have taken as hand-me-downs or bought off Craigslist. They have worked up to this point, but I have been watching HGTV lately and am so envious of the beautiful bedrooms they create. Jonathon and I have talked about slowly improving our home so that when we get a job and need to move (perhaps in the next year or two), we can get the price that we want and need for our home. We both felt that a nicely staged bedroom would really improve our chances of selling.

Since money is still tight, I decided that I wanted to try my hand at refinishing some old furniture to create a set for our bedroom. I started off by doing lots of research on the Internet. Jonathon and I didn't even know what we liked or wanted. We looked through lots of pictures and finally found our style. Both of us like the Cottage Style (soft natural colors, interesting lines and textures, homey feel) mixed with Contemporary elements (clean and simple, not overly busy). After we both came to that conclusion without knowing the others preferences, we laughed because pretty much nothing in our home reflects our likes. To this point, we have just decorated with what we have gotten from other people or found on sale. As I have started paying more attention to home decorating, I have grown tired of homes that are generic. I want to buy or create things that I love and that make our home unique. I will probably have to wait awhile to have the money to accomplish this, but now I have a vision to follow and can do it slowly over time.

After pinpointing our style, I started looking at DIY sites that had tutorials showing how to turn old furniture into something that matched with our likes. I decided I really wanted a white bedroom set, so I spent a lot of time on blogs that taught how to paint wood furniture. After seeing tons of examples, I settled on my favorite: white paint with very light antiquing to show off the details.

Next, I needed to find the furniture to use. Our side tables were really just old filing cabinets that didn't match, so I knew I was going to have to start from scratch. I started to search garage sales for something that might work. I found two identical side tables listed for $10 each. I bartered with the lady, and ended up getting them for $10 total. They were in good condition and had interesting lines, so I decided that they would work great. Here is the before picture:

Next, I went searching for a headboard. I wanted to find something that I could make to match the side tables that I bought. There were lots of headboards at the garage sales, but most of them were just really boring, and I didn't think I could make them interesting. Finally, I found one that I thought I could rehab. Honestly, it was really ugly when I first saw it. Someone had painted some of the panels red and then put dents all over it to create a rustic look. I tried to see past the appearance though and look at the overall structure. It was solid thick wood, and I loved the three inset panels. I thought they would look really cool with the antiquing finish, so I took a chance on it for $20. Here is the before (I had started sanding one side when I realized I hadn't taken a picture):

So, now the challenge was to somehow get them to look like a matching set. The styles were completely different, so a little paint wouldn't completely fix them. I went to the hobby store and found some wooden accents to put on the headboard to give it a softer, more interesting look. We just applied it with caulk after it was all sanded and before it was painted. At this stage, it still looked really awful:

So, after lots of sanding, wood putty to fill in the dents and scratches, 2 coats of spray primer, 2 coats of white paint, antiquing, 2 coats of polycrylic sealer, and about 2 weeks, they are done. (Whew! That was a lot of work) And I am really happy with how they turned out. Yay! Here is the finished bedroom set: