The 2 year nightstands.

The 2 year nightstands are finally done in our master bedroom.  Why did they take 2 years?  

Well once upon a time, about 6 years ago, we finally purchased our first "real" wood furniture.  By this I mean, I finally convinced my husband that if he hated Ikea as much as he said he did, then he was going to have to buck up at a "real" furniture store.  (This was obviously pre-Jentiques)

He did, and we purchased a lovely wood bedroom set. BUT... at our old house, we only had room for one nightstand due to the small space.  

We moved a year or two later and our new master bedroom was probably 3 times bigger than the last,  and now we needed 2. 

BUT.... due to some neglect there was a ring mark or two from drinks, some nicks and the cost for another matching nightstand was a bit too pricey for either of our liking.

So, the search began.  Unfortunately, it was not that easy to find two matching (attractive) nightstands that were the right dimensions.  We needed something a bit taller.  So for what seems like 2 years I searched randomly on craigslist and second hand stores and virtually came up with nothing.  

I finally settled on these.  They were matching and the right height.  They were in good condition and I didn't have to do anything to them.  BUT...were they what I wanted? 

No.

And then....

Funny enough, the nightstands were actually in my garage for the last year.  No, my garage isn't that full of furniture!  I purchased this very LARGE long unit a while back from Salvation Army.  Got an amazing deal on it too:) - but the issue with it was, it was going to be a ton of work to refinish and due to the length and space that it would require, I knew my market was limited.  So, I kept procrastinating.  It was haunting me for a long time in my garage.  (yes furniture haunts me)  I began using it to store my supplies... Ok, this post is getting to long. lol

To make this short and sweet, my mother yet again, offers to do a trade with me.  She says she wants half of this unit.  She offers my stepdad and his handy woodworking skills (yet again) to chop it all up and make 2 units out of it!  She ended up refinishing it black, put it in her space and... hated it!

Then, suddenly one night as I lay in bed, I had a light-bulb moment!  These two units were the perfect nightstands!

All of these items seen on the nightstands are second hand, including the lamps:)

And that is how one enormous piece of furniture became two perfect nightstands:)  Well, after some sanding,  priming, painting and new hardware. 

The end. 

I'm seeing white....

The past few weeks I've been working on various things.  A custom chair, still working on my nightstands and I updated my showroom.  All are WHITE and all seem to be taking a bit longer than I'd hope but I'm trying to ease back into things as mentioned previously, and "embrace" being a little less crazy.  

This is the custom chair I completed for a friend of mine this past week.  

Painted with ASCP Pure White, distressed and the seat was reupholstered with some burlap to match a burlap lamp she previously got from me:)  

And..... the forever painting nightstands are still a work in progress.  I'm hoping after several coats of primer, and 2 coats of ACSP, that I will be putting the last coat on tomorrow and posting those this week for the reveal!  Apparently when the project is for myself it takes twice as long as usual. lol.  

I was inspired last week to update my showroom / shop, so I was busy working on that as well.   This is what it looked like previously.

I use the sun room attached to our home for my showroom and often work on my projects in it as well.  We are currently updating the exterior of our home so perhaps that's what inspired me to jump the gun on this project, as the rest of the house will be painted shortly as well.  

I decided to paint it all out white.  Shocker. For anyone who knows me well, white seems to be my color of preference these days.

I'm just hoping that that isn't any kind of a forecast into my future as I find great comfort and peace with white walls. lol

I also updated the window treatments.  There was bamboo roll up type blinds on all 3 walls of windows but due to the sun, all the strings were broken and they also did not allow for much light.  

So, I made a trip out to IKEA this week to pick up some sheers.  I needed 18 panels, and I wanted to keep the cost down.  Where else can you find a pair of curtain panels for $5.99?  Probably only a thrift store or IKEA!  And the chances of finding 18 panels of matching curtains at any thrift store where slim to none.  

That worked out to approximately $53.91 + taxes and a whopping .75 cents to feed my toddler a hotdog for lunch.  Now, that's a deal!  

The final result is so much better than before. Fresh and airy.  I would like to add a few personal touches but as there really isn't much wall space, my options are limited.  And new lighting is on my wish list as well.  Looks like I need to get back to work and make some money!  

I'll post a picture of the room this week once it's all fancied up:)

Jen