DIY Nightstand Makeover: This did NOT go as planned

Welcome back everybody! I've got a set of oversized nightstands here. I feel like I need to do a little bit of a trigger warning. I am going to be painting these, so brace yourselves. If these oversized nightstands look familiar, I actually did a set not that long ago, but the tops on those ones were so damaged I had absolutely no choice but to replace them. And that set came to me already refinished. Someone had already painted them, redid the tops, but as you can see they just didn't hold up. So I replaced the tops, they turned out absolutely beautiful, and this next set is going to be a lot different. My name is Angie and I'm the one behind Transcend Furniture Gallery. It's my mission to keep as many pieces of furniture as possible out of landfills. Sometimes I paint, sometimes I don't, but I always do what I can to save old pieces from the trash. Welcome to my workroom. Okay, so at first glance these don't look too bad aside from the tops. The tops are obviously shot, they have to be completely redone, but the rest of the piece isn't bad. I could have just polished it up, stripped and redid the tops, and called it a day, but I didn't. Maybe I should have. I have a feeling you guys will let me know. Either way, I'm using my favorite stripper which is Circa 1850. It's great at cutting through these thicker finishes. I'm going to be doing a white wash on the top, the top drawer, and around the base, the trim around the base. Everything else is going to be painted, and this was a bit of a process. This did not turn out at all how I pictured it in my mind, but you know sometimes when that happens you have to strip it back and start all over again, and sometimes you roll with it, and in this video with these particular pieces I chose to roll with it, and I ended up with a very interesting finish. I'm just removing the first bit of stripper with a putty knife, and then I'm going to go back in with a stiff bristled brush to get around the edges, and a 3M stripping pad just to get any residual stripper gunk off. I like to add just a little bit of fresh stripper when I'm using the 3M pad, it just helps sort of reactivate any bits that have dried, and then I'm going to clean with some mineral spirits. I'm just pouring a bit on, I'm going to work it in well, make sure to get any residual bits of stripper off, and then I'm going to wipe it dry immediately. I don't really want this to soak in. If you remember from the other video of the similar set of nightstands, well it's just a thin veneer, it's not solid oak, and under this layer of veneer is pressed wood, so what happened was someone left a water glass on their nightstand, or a plant that got over watered, anyway, some sort of moisture got on there, got into the pressed wood, and the pressed wood swelled, and that's exactly where this set was headed, but I'm intervening now, and we're going to seal this up really good at the end. So at this moment in the process, I am seriously considering my sanity for wanting to strip this drawer. What a pain in the arse it is trying to strip this off with all these little grooves, but I'm getting it done, and it's gonna look great. It's gonna look great, right? I don't know. All right, so I finally got that sorted, and then on to the base. The base is also going to be whitewashed, like the top drawer and the tops. In this moment, the plan is to paint the middle section in a dark charcoal gray. I'm using ash by Fusion Mineral Paint. What I don't know yet is that the contrast, while I knew there would be contrast, obviously, it was just a bit too stark, and I didn't like it, but we'll get to that shortly. Right now, the mineral spirits have completely dried, and I'm ready to sand the tops. I'm using an orbital sander for the very top, and I'm going to hand sand all of the trim and the curved details. I'm using a 150 grit sanding pad here, and also on the sides to scuff sand where I'm going to paint. I'm doing a 50-50 paint water ratio for my whitewash here. I'm using Fusion Mineral Paint, and this is really easy to use. You just want to wipe it on. You can use a rag. I prefer a brush. It's just a little bit neater, and then once I have the area coated, I'm going to take a clean cloth and wipe off the excess. You do have to move fairly quickly when you're whitewashing because you don't want the paint to dry before you have a chance to wipe it off. Often what I'll do on a big surface like this, or an even bigger surface like a dresser, is I'll put the paint on, and then I will quickly do a second wash on top just to reactivate the paint and the water, and then wipe it off. I tend to have better results that way. And here's where things start to go south for me a little bit. The second, and I mean the second, I started putting this on, I was like, oh, this contrast is going to be too much, and if you've seen some of my other videos, you know that I'm not afraid of contrast. In fact, I have a whitewashing and cold black video, and the results are absolutely stunning, but it just wasn't quite what I was picturing for this piece. So I'm a little bit distraught right now as I'm painting this on, and I'm trying to think in my head how I can soften this. So what I decided to do was take an 800 grit sanding pad and just very lightly sand some of the charcoal paint. I'm distressing it just slightly. I don't do a lot of distress stuff anymore. I did more so when I first started painting furniture, but I've since moved away from it a little bit. Anyway, at this point I'm thinking with the whitewash, sort of a weathered paint look might look cool, and so that's what I did. I started sanding back some of it. I only have one coat of paint, and I opted to do it now specifically so that some of the wood tones would come through. So don't give up on me yet. There's another step coming. This is Big Mama's by Dixie Belle, and I love this product. It's similar to the Wise Owl furniture salve in a way, and also smells delicious, so I love using this. What I'm doing, at this point I've decided I'm going to add white wax over top of the charcoal, but I want to seal the charcoal paint first. What sometimes happens when you just go in with any color wax really on top of just paint is it doesn't slide on the surface very well. It tends to sort of clump, and you get streaks, and it just doesn't look very good. But if you seal the paint first, it gives it a nice slick surface, and you can manipulate the wax better, and it's just I prefer to do it this way. This is Art Mines, which is a Michaels brand white wax, and you've seen me use this a few times before. I really like this particular wax. I'm just smearing it all over in manageable sections. I'm not going to wax the whole piece and then buff it off. I'm just going to do a section at a time, wipe it off, and hope for the best. Oh my gosh, you guys, I feel like this is the least professional video I've done so far since I started this in April. To be honest, I really struggled with whether or not I should upload this, but the fact of the matter is if you do furniture long enough, you're going to have these situations where you can have the best laid plans, and it just will turn out completely differently. And that's kind of what happened with this. I had a vision for it, and it just didn't turn out. So I just kind of rolled with it. I like how this is looking. I completely understand that some of you will not, and that's totally fine. It's like anything. There is a lover and a hater for pretty much anything. What's kind of neat about it is it has a little bit of a cerusing effect, which is kind of neat actually. It also looks a little bit maybe like brushed denim in a way. I don't know, it's a really different look, and I kind of like it. The more I look at it, the more I like it, I'll say that. Well, thank you for sticking with me, whoever is still here. I love and appreciate you. Let's have a better look at how these turned out.