10.17.2011

New Nightstands

This weekend wasn't the most exciting. Adam took the math subject test of the GRE {aka the hardest test of his life} and then had to spend the rest of the weekend catching up on all the homework he put off because he was studying for the GRE.

I, on the other hand, never have to study or do homework again! So, I got to spend the weekend working on a few house projects. We have been wanting new nightstands with more storage space for a while now. With a baby on the way and all the extra stuff that comes with it, we will take all the storage we can get.

Ikea Rast Chest

When we had saved up enough moolah in our furniture fund {also known as our credit card cash back} Adam took me on a little Friday night date to Ikea, where we picked up two Rast chests for $34.99 each. They are solid wood, but came unfinished, which was perfect because I was planning on painting them anyway.

So, I headed to Lowe's for Olympic No-VOC primer and paint, matched to Benjamin Moore's decorator white. The primer only came in the gallon size, which was a bummer because it was $16 and there's no way we will ever use that much. But, pregnant ladies are only supposed to use No-VOC paint and, honestly, if I waited till Adam had time for this project, I might as well have waited till I wasn't pregnant anymore. He's a busy guy!

New Nightstands

Then it was just a matter of applying one coat of primer and three coats of paint. But I wasn't quite done yet. I left some extra cash in the furniture fund for new hardware to help the nightstands look a little less Ikea-ish. The options at Lowe's and Target weren't stellar, so I decided to try Hobby Lobby. I thought I would have to wait until we were back in Texas for Christmas to finish the makeover, but lo and behold, a Hobby Lobby just opened in Pittsburgh.

New Nightstands

Even better, they just happened to have all their hardware 50% this week. My options were pretty limited because I needed 12 knobs. I ended up choosing some pretty white ones for $1.50 each. Considering the cheapest knobs at Lowe's were $1.00 and they didn't even have 12, I am pretty happy with my choice.

New Nightstands

The top drawer of the nightstands are devoted to our bibles, chargers and such. For now, we are devoting the other two drawers to baby clothes and blankets. But, when we move to a bigger apartment next August {when Adam starts grad school} we are planning to put our dresser in the nursery and use those drawers in the nightstands for our pajamas, socks and such. So we can avoid purchasing another dresser and so we can free up more space in our room, because we are planning to put our desk in there.

Whew! That was a really, really long post about nightstands. Can you tell I've learned to think about things a lot before committing to a purchase?

3 comments:

  1. I love Young House Love! But I haven't read it in ages ... yay, now I get to catch up. :)

    The night stands look great. Honestly, some days I can't wait until I've graduated and have no homework myself and can do awesome projects like this! But God's timing is better than mine, so I try to be patient, and in the meantime take vicarious pleasure in the projects of my friends. :)

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  2. oh those turned out AWESOME! and i too am jealous of your no homework and studying but that def won't cut it up here in el nursing school!

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  3. Super Impressive, as usual! :)

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You are awesome.