The Girls Get A New Nightstand

I think the last time I showed you the girls’ room it was arranged differently.  I got antsy and moved the beds to the wall facing the door and that layout has felt a lot nicer to me. 

But this arrangement meant I needed a nightstand between the beds, instead of having a dresser there. (The dresser is on the wall facing the beds now, as are the doll houses.) In the transition I was using the old octagon table I made over a while back. But it’s scale was very off, and the paint had seen a leaky water bottle mishap, so not looking great.

I had found a great mid-century-modern nightstand for Bronson’s room. And Jasmine fell immediately in love with it. So she was telling me she needed one JUST like it. So our hunt began...

The whole event of getting this table was pretty fun for me as a mom. I got to explain a lot of stuff to her, and she was really listening and learning and growing.

I explained the concept of vintage shopping and how we were not likely to ever find that exact same table again. But we could look for similar ones.

     We also walked through Target and looked over brand new ones trying to brainstorm the right look.

     We came across one at Target that she liked and when I told her the price tag was 100 dollars (without a “big deal voice” just a “fact voice”) her eyes almost fell out of her head. (She’s six years old so the number 100 is essentially a million to her.) And when I told her I was able to find Bronson’s nightstand for $12 she was very much on board my train. (She LOVES math. This was speaking deeply to her.)

So from then on I was keeping my eye out and texting pictures home to Blake to show her on my mom-vaction thrifting trips. She turned down SO many that were VERY close to the one I had bought Bronson. 

Eventually I came across this piece.  

I actually saw it once and passed it up. 

Because the inside was made for holding records, and I didn’t see that working for us.

But it was still at Goodwill a good bit later, after Jasmine had turned down a few more tables. And now it was half off. So it was also only $12 now. I figured at that price the inside could be ok with me. I thought it through trying to think how we’d use it…. and I realized the girls actually have been trying to find a good housing spot for their special stuffed animals, and they weren’t really getting anywhere, so the animals were just kind laying everywhere. So I decided it could be stuffed animal beds now, and that when they get older it could be maybe like a sweater or shoes stashing station or something.

So I texted those brown photos home to Blake and Jasmine, explaining I thought her stuffed animals could sleep in the slots. And she was sold. She said that she “could see it in white.” (My upycling mom-heart could not be more proud.)

So white it was. I used some BIN shellac to start with, because I knew it’d be harder to go from such a dark brown to white without primer. And then I used Rustoleum oil-based white semi-gloss brush on paint. 

I love to use oil based paint on surfaces that get a lot of use because it dries hard and solid, unlike latex which always has a hint of tackiness.

I tried numerous knobs on here trying to update it and finally landed on this one.  This might not be like my super number one choice, but I do like it a lot. I like that with the clear knob you can see the flower shape of the wood underneath. It was pretty hidden by the original knob. And I went with this clear knob from Home Depot over another clear one I liked more from Hobby Lobby, because this one is acrylic and not glass -- I feel better about that with kids. I just didn’t want to think about broken glass happening.


Here’s Jasmine tucking her animals in for the first time. Two slots for her, two slots for Ruby. All is right and fair with the world.

In case you’re curious. The ipod is as old as Jasmine is, and we let the girls listen to night time stories that I read and recorded for them. (I just used garage band on my mac to do it.)

And the bunny figurines were brown outdoor bunnies that we gave makeovers to.

The girls decided on the concept and I loved it. I spray painted them white, then painted on gold rub and buff paint in pokadots and stripes. They turned out super cute.

Anyway -- I LOVE this piece in here. It’s the perfect size and shape and height. And it turned out quite a bit prettier than even I imagined it might be. (Scroll up and look at it brown again….yeah. The white did some magic.)

I’m still tweaking their room. So stay tuned, I’m sure I’ll have another update in here.