furniture rehab/ design*sponge envy

I always see those before and after posts on Design*Sponge and wish that I had some cool piece of furniture to revamp. Well, now I do.  This house is full of old furniture that is just begging to be modernized. Of course, my mom won't let me touch most of it.  But there are a few pieces over which she gave me free reign.  My first project is a couple of night stands.

Above is a before picture of one of the night stands.  Unfortunately, I forgot to take a total before picture of the other.

I sanded them first with 100 grit, then with 150, then with 220. It's amazing how soft they feel.  It's also amazing how much stain came off of them. I was absolutely covered in it.  I went to help my dad and Dan install some of the new woodwork, didn't wash my hands well enough, and got brown finger prints ALL OVER the clean white stuff.  They wanted to kill me.  Whoops?

Despite all of the stain that came off of the pieces (and onto my hands), they are still not stripped.  I had toyed with the idea of stripping both pieces and staining them anew. But given our time constraints, I decided just to paint them.  This better fulfills my design*sponge dream anyway.

I was actually really smitten with the way this one looked half-stripped.  I really debated leaving it like that and just applying polyurethane.  I eventually decided to paint it, because I wasn't sure if other people would appreciate its beauty or if I just thought it was beautiful because I am sick of sanding and painting.

Here are both pieces primed and ready for something more exciting.  I think I know what that something is...you'll get to see the final product soon.

p.s.  speaking of design*sponge: check out their new design guide for Portland, Maine!