Painted in a Weekend: Two-Tone IKEA Rast Nightstand

Happy Friday!

Here is another painting project I recently tackled along with the mirrors:  Big's new nightstand, which is the ubiquitous Ikea RAST chest.  I used to have it in my bedroom, but it was a little too small for what I needed.  Big needs a little more storage in his room, and the RAST is the perfect size for a nightstand.  Plus, I love that it is actual, real wood and is cheap - around $30.  So this was (and has been for a looooong time) on my list to transform for him.  Here it is before, back when it lived in my room:

For Big, I wanted to do a two-tone paint treatment: stain the outside a dark ebony color and paint the drawers white.  His dresser is a dark wood tone, so I thought it would look really good together:

Before I painted, I removed the wood knobs and puttied the holes. I wanted to replace the knobs with these pulls that I bought (again: a looooooong time ago) at Home Depot.  They kind of mimic the pulls on his dresser above.  

This was pretty easy.  I stained first, figuring it would be easier to paint over the stain than stain over white paint.  Here's how it looked after a few coats of Minwax stain in "Jacobean".

Then I painted the wood drawers.  I used a coat of oil based primer and then three coats of Sherwin Williams Dover White and topped it all off with some Polycrilic. Here it is after the paint:

Just look at that beauty! Last it was time for hardware. I have a little hardware drilling guide, which I bought at Home Depot ages ago.

This little thing is money!  It takes all of the guesswork out.  It has paid for itself about a thousand times over.  I used it as a template for where to drill and ... voila.  My helper took this picture of me in the act of adding the hardware.  The mess in the playroom is an abomination.  And now that I look at it, I think she was taking a picture of her new playhouse and I happened to be in the shot.  

And here is the new nightstand in place.  He quickly filled it with his treasures.

Here are some before and afters to round out the post.  Who doesn't like those?

Before: unfinished chest

ho hum

After: Two-Tone Paint/Stain and New Hardware

helloooo lovah!

Before: old nightstand

After: new nightstand

What do you think? Well, besides falling over in your chair that I actually stained wood instead of painted it.  :) 

See you swoon,