White and Java Mid Century Nightstand

I’ve had some mid century pieces sitting in the garage for a while and I’ve been tackling a lot of the antique style dressers I have instead. Well, I needed a break so I finally chose to get on this little nightstand that has a mid century and danish modern feel… almost a year after I bought it. Bad. I know.

I picked up a big order of General Finishes products I bought (which can be found at designs my mara in Lynnwood) including a bunch of quarts of milk paint and a pint of Java. I went with the classic two toned finish on this piece and tried GF’s Java Gel Stain for the first time. I first stripped the old finish off of the drawers and front legs, then sanded them down to bare wood. I did try just sanding them first without stripping off the finish, but I was too nervous I would sand through the veneer, so I played it safe 🙂 I also sanded down the rest of the piece with my palm sander to prepare it for paint.

I used a staining pad to wipe on the Java stain to both drawers and all of the legs on the piece. After letting it cure for 8 hours I sealed it with GF’s high performance poly in Satin. I then taped off the legs and interior, and primed the frame of the nightstand with 2 coats of Zinsser Cover stain oil based primer and let it cure overnight. A light sanding evened out the finish and then I applied 4 coats of General Finishes Snow White milk paint, giving plenty of time in between coats for the paint to dry. To finish it off I sealed it with GF’s gloss poly. I love the contrast between the dark wood and white frame.