Transforming dark, old furniture into something brighter?

The lady you are going to meet today has thin, slender legs. If you're jealous, don't worry, because who doesn't want to have tanned, sexy, long legs? Well, I think you will agree that there are some exceptions once you look at this photo. 😳

Who designed this furniture? Was it trendy in those days? 😳 Like in the seventies? (can't determine the age of this actually...). It is so awkward...

At the moment, we will leave the leg issue aside and focus on the colour. Brown with high gloss - and it is not just this little piece of furniture. There is also a big wardrobe and two beds that make up the set.

There are things you can't choose, but you can make some changes - get rid of them or transform them into something else. 😂 In the same way, I didn't choose the furniture that came with the flat we bought a few months ago. It came fully equipped, with all household appliances, all furniture and accessories such as curtains, complete cutlery, blankets, some rugs, decorations, paintings, books - everything. I throw away the things I didn't like or were worn out or simply wanted to buy new ones instead... it took me quite a long time to select and then bring our stuff, play Tetris with the furniture, modify them etc. We have done many things already, we are adapting the place to our necessities and liking, there are really some nice things I like a lot, however, there is this set of furniture that I haven't started to love. Not even to like it. 😅

My first thought was to place it into my son's room, as he is coming just once in a while home to spend a few days, and then he is off again. He didn't mind having this weird-looking furniture, as I had a lot of enthusiasm to paint it and modify the whole thing to look a bit nicer and more attractive for a young person. He was ok with that, he still is. Several months have already passed, and I haven't got there to refurbish his room. I think that now, that time has arrived.

For the test, I took the smallest part from the set. A cabinet with two drawers (could it be called a nightstand, actually?). My son's writing desk is white, bought from Ikea. To try to match that style (hmmm, at least the colour), I decided to try to transform the nightstand, the wardrobe and the beds into white. I would paint it with chalk paint.

I have worked on this in three phases until now.

I took out the drawers and unscrewed the drawer handles. I already did that with one drawer before the first photo was taken.

To prepare the furniture for painting, we have to sand the surface. This high gloss needs to disappear so the paint can adhere better.

For this drawer, I used the only sandpaper I had at home that morning I started with this little work, of grit 120. I didn't have a lot of time as I had to prepare the lunch, pack it and leave for work. So, I sanded just one drawer and painted one coat of chalk paint on it.

You can use a small piece of wood, wrap it with sandpaper and start sanding.

Better with
https://youtu.be/WTc25PZ0Xqg 😁🎶

Once sanded, carefully clean and remove all the dust from the surface. I bought one can of chalk paint (white) and mixed the paint well with a screwdriver.

After applying one coat of paint, it looked like this. Not perfect, but it was still not dry, so the lines were more visible.

Later, I checked the drawer to see whether I liked it. It was okay-ish, so I decided to continue with this painting activity the next time I have some free time.

I bought more sandpaper, grit 80 and 120. The higher the number is, the finer the sanding is, but we still need to remove that gloss. That is why I used the 80.

This is the mess and dust I left on the balcony after this sanding... 😅

I was playing against the weather and evening, it was getting dark, and a storm was coming, so I had to be quick in cleaning and removing the dust. The painting happened after the first round of the heavy rain finished. It was already dark to take some photos.

This is how it looked after drying for almost a day.

We can see the difference between the two drawers (one of them has two layers of paint). The legs came out the worst, somehow the white paint got yellow nuances. I think it is because I didn't clean the dust from the sanding well. Also, there are more imperfections (like little holes, now I see those holes have to be filled with wood putty before the painting). But all in all, I started to like it in its white version.

Today I didn't have to sand anything, just to apply one additional layer of paint, and I did it with a paint roller. The paint gets distributed better, more evenly than with the brush. Still, the thin parts and the corners need to be painted with the brush, and just then the roller gets to roll. 😆

We are slowly getting there. I sent a photo to my son, even when it had one layer of painting less, and he liked it. I am still thinking about the drawer handles... I want to find some minimalistic, white drawer handles, something in Ikea style.

And the legs... what to do with the legs is still a mystery. Should I leave them, applying an additional layer of white paint?

The big wardrobe has the same awkward legs btw hahaha... 🤷‍♀

No take 4 at the moment. This little piece of furniture was just a test to see how it would turn out. Do you like it? Would you make the same effort and start refurbishing the big wardrobe and beds if you were me, or would you just ditch them and buy a new set of furniture for a room that is not used a lot? The time it would take me... is much more than I spent on this little nightstand.