AHHH! I am so excited for this post and am PUMPED to show you what we have been working on! This project is less than $50 and completely customizable- at this point, I know you are just as pumped as I am!
When we (hubby and I) moved, we didn’t have nightstands for our new place and we really wanted to find something that we both liked.
Making furniture decisions as a pair can be challenging, so after looking at a million choices we decided to check out Ikea and see what options they had.
After looking + comparing everything, we ended up choosing the RAST 3-drawer chest for our DIY nightstand project.
We chose the RAST because:
- It was affordable ($39.99)
- It was easily customizable with it being a natural wood
- It was the right size and fit perfectly on both sides of the bed
Once we got them home, came the fun part…
I really wanted teal nightstands since we got our rug in (read all about our rugs here), but cor was not going for that so we settled on teal drawers, a white shell, and gold knobs to match our accent mirrors.
Fun part #2 came when we actually had to put them together and paint them!
I wrote down step-by-step how we made the RAST chests our own and I hope it helps you in your journey to DIY the perfect furniture for your home!
1. Build the Chests
Ikea is known for not having the greatest directions, so putting them together will honestly be the hardest part. Cor started building around 10:30am and didn’t finish until almost 3pm! He was not too happy, but I was because that meant it was my turn to work on them 🙂
2. Choose your paint + design
You want to make sure you know how/what color you want to paint before you actually start painting.
We chose to spray paint it all because: 1. It was the cheapest 2. We wanted a quick dry time.
We found spray paint at our local Lowe’s and it took 1 can of white for the shell, 1 can of teal for the drawers, and 1 can of gold for the knobs. This could easily be cut down to less than $50 if you wanted to choose 1 color, or even 2, but since we couldn’t decide on just one we went with all of our options which made our total closer to $60!
Once you have your paint, get to spraying!
Make sure you have something covering the ground where you are painting, and wear clothes you don’t mind getting messy! I also suggest wearing shoes that you don’t mind getting paint all over because I painted barefoot and my feet were blue for over a week…
The painting process won’t take too long, just focus on being consistent and don’t rush it! Make sure you are painting one piece at a time and not trying to paint it while put together. If you have never used spray paint before, check out this tutorial on Youtube for detailed instructions on how to make it look the way you want!
3. Find a secluded place to let it dry
You don’t want to risk your paint getting messed up if you have all of the pieces in a high-traffic area, so set aside a space beforehand and move pieces there to dry after you paint them.
Tip: Let them sit over night to make sure they are 100% dry and ready for you to put together in the morning!
4. Once you have painted everything and are happy with the result: put it together and place in desired spot!
If your paint is dry and you are happy with the way it looks, the last step is to put it back together and place it in your room!
Once you are done, your DIY nightstand project is a success and you can enjoy your new furniture and a happy wallet!
BONUS: Distress your nightstand with a nail file!
Since we had just moved, we couldn’t find the sandpaper we had and we forgot to buy it when we got paint, so I got creative and used a nail file to distress the front of the drawers!
I was shocked to see how it turned out and honestly, I am so proud of the way it looks!
The easiest way to distress with a nail file is to:
- Lay the file down flat and rub against the entire surface
- Use the edge of the file to draw lines and scratch “wood grain” into the paint
- Use the side of the file to rough up and take paint off the edges of the drawer
- Lay the fit down flat again and rub against the entire surface to even out the new effects you created
Distressing with a nail file is probably not the most time-effective process, but it is what we had and it worked for this project. If you end up trying it this way, comment below and let me know how it goes for you!
Here are some behind-the-scene pics of our nightstand journey- enjoy!
I hope you enjoyed seeing the process of how we created our nightstands! And I hope that you take the time to DIY your perfect and unique pieces of furniture to be exactly what you want them to be.
Happy DIY’ing!
