A few years back I was living in a wonderful apartment in a very up and coming neighborhood of San Francisco known as the
Dogpatch. I have to say, my room wasn't small and neither was my 14" long closet, but thanks to an odd angled wall in one corner I didn't have a ton of room for nightstands on either side of my bed. I searched all over the Bay Area for nightstands that possessed a bit of character and fit my specific dimensions. Finally I found a pair of nightstands and unfortunately, an accompanying cal-king headboard at a consignment shop in San Rafael. The nightstands, that the previous owner had repainted silver, were the perfect dimensions at just 15.5" wide. After a few weeks of posting the headboard on
craigslist and a number of no-show potential buyers, the headboard found its way out onto the curb. Of course, it was snagged in no time by some passer-by for free. So, there they were, two perfectly scaled silvers nightstands. At the time the silver was a good fit for a room painted Disney's "Space Dust" (that's a whole other story), but once I moved and they moved out of the bedroom and into my new office/guestroom, the silver no longer worked.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9EWl3bU2Ov9mbFr7xKr24a9i8Bl2drfuAvMpi-HPrOuG0p0yfzMyLpvn06RXgq8_kG9vqraOSnm3wr4-MT4b45qd2X8xWeVIH2fV7Tu5sxrUFHUiU55nbaKbq2E26ArOacAqeMplCkRYj/s400/nightstand+before.jpg)
I wanted to make a big change on a very small budget, preferably under $10 for both. I had a bit of Behr's "Scottish Isle" paint left over from another project, so armed with some sandpaper, a foam brush and my paint, I set to work bringing new life to my nightstands.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3iu2qaQHd4BymKal364CchPHtlcYFo8tPw0YGYhcpfZqqeYO-gj-zRqkIMPIBOGhYoCg8z73rBXwOWH7CKID2ge8TfzPNSQODpEKudbrGAuEs-jpQSemPI59socbwKMCjbJW-ikGQFd59/s400/nightstand+paint.jpg)
Once I finished painting them, I realized that the knobs looked even worse than before. Just a few days later on a trip to the the outlet mall I found these wonderful woven metal knobs for a penny-pinching $1.39 a piece at the Restoration Hardware outlet. So for a total of $6.04 (4 knobs + tax), some leftover paint and a little time and elbow grease I was able to bring new life to my consignment store finds.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYGnJsII7teZjmQoUXhc2qd2uaXjB1LfE07PVcWaMCh02mw6pM94ZlA4ySQmXnsFehu3QrQgNOKLOavpYXyQFHWdPsLp_Kwdqjq5HWGNm83ezwotgMxUlVwD2rZr9Ba285wveFmLeIqETt/s400/nightstand+knob+after.jpg)
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK0Li-qlm-llrYWLOm3DvcNq4BuwEWtOM7_7sLu08lmNVof-wKPtROq0BUfdG_TUw2yCo9kNO9xaeb53deA4KZdTs7CCcQpG67jhehq_xNE-fTOqy9WbjEPweUmQQ0bGKia0EUeIAhEzLW/s400/nightstand+after.jpg)
Do you have a favorite furniture refinishing project?