nesting | a furniture facelift

so, i've been cut off from buying furniture, which, i'm fine with. santa brought me my covetable lucite table so i'm quite the happy camper in the home goods department.

however, a week or so before we moved to brooklyn, i did an ikea east hack and i thoroughly enjoyed it. i don't usually enjoy manual labor so this took me by extreme surprise. even more shocking, i did a pretty decent job with it being my first go at the DIY rodeo and all.

so, when i told joe that i wanted to give our west elm parson's console a facelift, he just sort of shook his head and said, "whatever you want to do, babe." "good answer," i said.

and, so, i did.

the truth is, when we bought the console, it was a purely hasty, forced purchase: for starters, i hate shopping with joe for furniture. he get's very impatient and almost breaks out in hives when we walk into a furniture store, most likely due to the fact that he knows i'm about to spend a fair amount of his money.  secondly, we really needed a piece of furniture for this awkward nook in our charlotte apartment and i didn't feel like looking any longer or watching joe sweat in the corner of west elm. so we went home with the console and, naturally, i hated it after six months. i knew that i should've waited until we found the perfect piece. it's really all joe's fault. (kidding, honey.)

well, after three years of looking at a piece of boring furniture that i despise and feel absolutely nothing towards, i hacked the shit out of it and turned it into something i absolutely love. i love that it will be able to transition to different rooms depending on where our next move takes us.

(all resources and information at the bottom of the post.)

tips, tricks, and resources: i asked my friend, who is a carpenter, how i should go about refinishing a piece of furniture that had a pretty thick stain on it. he told me i had to "scruff the shit out of it." exact words. what this actually meant: i used 80 grit sanding paper to scruff it all to hell. it was a very dusty messy process. then, i thoroughly went back over it with 120 grit and then 150 grit to get an even texture.

the second process involved priming. you MUST prime it. it makes such a huge difference with the application of the paint, particularly so when using a lighter color over a dark wood. i used this primer  simply because i could get it delivered the next day. i chose pale pistachio by benjamin moore. there is nothing pistachio about this color. it's white. (side note: why are there fifty-two shades of white? just give me white.) i was also able to use this paint, which has virtually no odor or nasty chemicals and is great when painting indoors or in small spaces. (read: a small brooklyn apartment.)

i should've stated this before, but, it's important that you drill the holes for your hardware after you sand and before you prime or paint. you don't want to mess up all of your hard work if you make a mistake with the drill. i was able to use the drill that my mom and step-dad got me for christmas for the first time and let me tell you something, i felt like Billy Badass using that thing. even more so when i got all eight holes correct on the first go of it. no misses or off-center holes. just perfection. i need to find more things to drill. i felt very powerful wielding that thing around. (thanks, mimi & pop!)

as for the knick-knacks: brass handles are actually hooks from anthro. white lacquer tray is from west elm. so is the gold sphere thingy. that green metal bin is from ikea from a year ago. i'm also purchasing this yellow lamp with a fun shade that i'm obsessed with to give it some more color. i'll probably re-style this console five more times until i'm fully pleased with it. oh! and i also bought some fun paper to line the drawers with. i'll post a pic of that and the wall art, soon.


so, what does everyone think? are you a fan? did i do okay on my second attempt at a furniture facelift? i say yes!