Night stand re-do

Yesterday I got several things done.

I cleaned up and cleaned out Bella's room. It took 2 1/2 hours and every time I clean it I swear up and down that I will never do that again. I did throw away two bags of crap that she just collects for some reason. She is such a hoarder! But, it's clean for now and hopefully she will keep it that way since I threatened her life ;)

When Tyler out grew his bunk beds we gave him Jason's old bedroom suit. Jason didn't take very good care of it, but it worked out good for Tyler. I've been wanting to refinish it for a while and make it look a little more modern, but I had no idea how to do that and I have always heard that it is a pain in the butt and very time consuming to strip off all the old stain. I had been reading about Annie Sloan's chalk paint (not chalkboard paint) for a few weeks and I finally bought some two weeks ago. Yesterday was the first day that I had time and it wasn't raining so I brought his nightstand out on the patio and did it. I was very nervous because I'm not crafty or creative and I didn't want to mess it up. I picked his night stand because it was small and didn't take too long. Of course after I got it outside and looked at the night stand it was in pretty bad shape and it definitely couldn't look any worse. If I messed it up I decided that I would just pay someone to refinish the entire bedroom suit and be done with it.

Before pictures:

 I'm really not sure what the black stuff is so I asked Tyler and he said he could have spilled something on there and "forgot" to wipe it off.

 The top looked horrible! I guess I just hadn't looked at it in so long that I forgot how bad it was.

  After:

 I was shocked at how much better the top looked!

 I went back and forth on buying new pulls or just painting the old ones. I ended up just spray painting them black and I love how they turned out!

 The finished product!

Since this is my first time ever doing something like this I have nothing to compare it to, but this was so easy and only took a couple of hours from start to finish. There is no prep work! No sanding or striping. I did sand the top just a little because it was so rough, but I really think it would have came out the same if I would have just left it alone. The first coat when on really fast and dried very quickly so I was able to start the second coat as soon as I finished the first. The second coat did take a little longer to dry. I bought dark soft wax and just used a cloth to rub it in. I put the pulls back and that was it! The only drawback is the price. It is $34.95 for a quart! Now it does go a long way and I should be able to do Tyler's whole room with a quart so when you think of it that way it is not too bad. I didn't distress Tyler's furniture because he liked how it turned out, but it is supposed to be very easy to distress so it can have that aged look.

Now I hope to do the rest of his furniture before the baby gets here. I'm also planning on painting Bella's furniture Old White, but that will be after the baby gets here! I have several other pieces of furniture that I want to paint, but they have so many great colors that I'm having a hard time deciding which ones I like best.