Furniture Reveal: White and Walnut Modular Mid Century Nightstand

Hello!
It’s been a while since I have been somewhat consistently posting, but I’m excited to share with you a really awesome modular nightstand today!

I wasn’t able to go to a furniture sale that I regularly check out because of school and work but my mom and sister stopped by later in the day and found this awesome piece. They sent me a picture and I signed off on the piece. It was a no brainer because of the price point and all those angles. I really love the shape of this mid century piece.

I contemplated a few options like a bold color or all white with some color that would accent all of the angles and lines of the nightstand, but I settled on white and walnut. It’s classic and pretty hard to go wrong with this combination. Based on condition I knew I was painting the whole piece white. There were many places on the top and a few corners that needed to be filled and sanded smooth. To break up the white and to keep some wood around I chose to stain the legs. In order to balance out the dark wood on the bottom I also chose to stain the handle on the drawer.

First up was striping off the old finish. You can read about my process and see a video tutorial on stripping furniture here. I used Citristrip on all 4 of the legs and the wood drawer pull. I let the stripper sit for about 40 minutes and then went back and used a TSP (substitute) wash and synthetic steel wool to remove the old finish. I was wearing gloves of course! Once all of the Citristrip and old finish was off I wiped everything down with clean water and let them dry overnight. The next day I was able to sand off all of the old stain and get the legs and handle down to raw wood. I just hand sanded with 150 grit and finished off with 220 grit sandpaper.

 

For stain I chose to use General Finishes Gel Stain. I have 2 colors I like to use, Java and Antique Walnut, but neither was exactly what I wanted. Instead, I mixed the two stains together to get the right dark, rich tone I was after. This stain needs to dry for a long time before a sealer is put over top. I waited 2 days just to be sure I didn’t ruin the stained finish in any way.

Back to the frame of the nightstand. I filled the scratches and chips, sanded, cleaned and then spray primed with Zinsser Cover Stain. I sprayed on 2 good coats and then sanded with a high grit sanding sponge once it was dry. There were a few spots on top where yellow bleed through kept coming through even after the 2 coats of primer so I sprayed those spots with Zinsser Shellac (clear) and then went back over those areas with the primer.

A few hours later I brought the piece into my spray booth and sprayed on a few coats of General Finishes Snow White milk paint (it’s an acrylic based paint, not a true milk paint). I did have to brush on 2 coats to the little shelf area because the paint container on the top of my spray gun would not fit inside thate area or let me be able to spray well at the right angle. I did end up figuring out I could turn the gun on its side and be able to get some paint in the shelf area (not as as thick of a coat as I wanted), but I did have to brush on a few coats to get the coverage I needed and spray on the last coat. Once the piece was dry (the next day) I sealed it with General Finished high performance topcoat.

I really love the modern look of this piece and the accents of dark wood on the legs and handle. And how great is this vintage rug I found? I scored that for $20 and it was worth every penny!