I have been looking to update my bedside tables for quite a while now, but I have not been willing to splurge on anything new. I found these two separately on Facebook Marketplace for thirty dollars and forty dollars each, and they're both made of solid wood, really well-made from notable brands.
They look nothing alike, but I have plans to turn them into a charming mismatched duo. I'm thinking that a sisters but not quite twins look will add character and interest to my room, and hopefully, I can pull that off. So let's get started!
Cleaning & Prep
I'm going to start by removing the hardware and storing it all in a bag so it doesn't get lost. I'm also screwing the screws back into each handle so I can find those as well. After that, I'm going to get right to cleaning.
I am using my favorite TSP alternative, which is a good soap and a degreaser. I'm putting it in a bucket of hot water, grabbing a scrubby sponge, and hitting every single surface of both of these dressers, and that includes inside the drawers as well. One of these drawers has a spill in it, so I'm going to do my best to clean that up, but we'll come back and fix this with some paint later on.
Cleaning is a really important step for making sure paint sticks, but it's also important to do before sanding. You want to make sure that you don't push any dirt or grime into the pores of the wood, so make sure you take your time with this step, especially if it's going to be furniture in your home, and get around the handles as well. Those are good spots where a lot of grime can build up.
Sanding
My inspiration for these pieces was a bare wood natural beautiful finish, and unfortunately, we're starting from a bit of a weird spot to get there. The darker dresser has a painter varnish on it that needs to come off, and the lighter dresser has a wonderful wood finish already. It's a little orange for my taste, but it's almost a shame to see that finish stripped off. Unfortunately, if we have any hope of getting these to match, we do need that to happen.
I'm going to take both an orbital sander and a 3x4 sander and start chipping away at all surfaces on these two dressers. And while I was sanding, I realized three things.
First, my dad is awesome. Thank you, dad, for helping me with sanding.
Second, the darker dresser was turning out to be the exact shade of wood I was hoping it's going to be, which is a redwood similar to the other dresser, so I have a good chance at a match here.
And finally, I was realizing that it was going to be really hard to get this stain and paint off of the trim pieces on both of these dressers. Sanding down a flat surface or even a slight edge is pretty straightforward if you have good tools, but getting into all of this detail, it's very time-consuming and often doesn't work the way you want it to.
We tried for a while, but I realized it was time to pivot. I had a good idea that would simplify this work for us and also give a beautiful result in the end. I was going to make as much of the two dressers wood as I possibly could and then add paint as a highlight on all the trim I was not able to sand.
This would give me both matching wood tones through the two pieces as well as matching paint, leaving the pair with a coherent, intentional look. I did make sure to give any of these trim pieces a really good scuff sand. This will be important for adhering the paint later.
Painting
Once all that sanding was done, I busted out the milk paint and started mixing up a custom color. I used a combination of Shackteau Interiors Magnolia Pier and Sea Smoke milk paints.
I want to say this was intentional, but honestly, they were the only two colors left in my drawer, and I've used their combination before for a wash over natural wood. It creates a really nice warm gray color depending on the proportions that you mix, so this is a great universal shade I can use with any tone of wood.
Milk paint comes in a powder that you mix 50/50 with water, and I'm going to give it an extra boost with bonding agent, again mixed in 50/50 proportions with the pre-prepared milk paint. And this, on top of the sanded buffed-out trim, is going to give good adhesion. Milk paint does not adhere quite as well as chalk paint, but I do love its texture and finish a little bit better, which is why I'm using it here.
I'm going to take my time to stir this stuff up really, really well and then let it sit for at least 10 minutes before I use it. You'll want to mix up enough for all coats that you want to do and you only have about 24 to 48 hours to use this paint up. So make sure your timing is planned really well. This is especially important because I'm making a custom color. I really cannot come back and make any more of this stuff. So I'm going to make a lot.
Okay, so now it's time to get started with painting, and I decided to use a slightly messy method. I have done a dresser before where I over-painted the lines, and then I was able to come back with a sander and buff out anything that wasn't on the right surface. This worked really well for that and gave nice sharp clean lines, so I was going on the assumption that the same thing would happen here.
I also decided to add some feet to the three-drawer dresser to give it a little extra boost and make these pieces close to the same height. I just got these at Lowe's, and you screw them into the bottom, and they screw on with a standardized size adapter, which is really awesome.
These did come as untreated wood, and I was tempted to stain them, but when standing it up side by side, I decided paint would look better, so I went ahead and did that too.
It took me three coats total to get the coverage and adherence that I wanted in these pieces. And I'm not gonna lie, there were a couple of places where I had not done a good enough sanding to begin with. I had some issues with peeling, and in that case, you just have to go back, get the sander back out, get it right down there, clean up anything that's not working well, and then just start with the paint again. I know it's annoying to go back to square one, but honestly, it saves more time than being finicky with the rest of the layers.
Now that all the paint is on, it's time to clean up all of my over-brushed edges on flat surfaces with this outward 90-degree angle. This works really well. Just grab an orbital sander and go to it on the top, and it'll leave you with a sharp, clean line just like I expected.
I quickly found out, though, on inner 90-degree corners, there's no way a sander can fit in there. I definitely made a mistake here, and it resulted in me being stuck hand-sanding inside all these tiny nooks and crevices. On top of that, the wood on both these dressers is quite hard, and the milk paint had soaked into the pores, which means I was here for quite a while.
I learned my lesson though. Next time I'm using painters tape!
Sealing
I contemplated for a while what I was going to do with the bare wood. Should I stain it? Bleach it? I wasn't sure. In the end, I decided that while this redwood wasn't my first choice, it was way too beautiful to taint, so I decided to leave it natural and seal it with this hemp oil.
I was lucky that the wood on these two pieces matched so well. There's only two panels on either side of the three-drawer dresser that are made out of a different material, and that's okay with me. I'm just going to leave those.
If you have two pieces and the wood isn't matching that well, you can either try staining them with a regular wood stain, or I've also used a milk paint wash in the past to try to bring them a bit closer together. Check out this project for more information about that process.
This was my first time using hemp oil, and I actually really enjoyed it. For starters, it really brings out the color of that wood. Look at those reds pop. I love it.
You apply it almost like a lotion or cream to the wood pieces, and it soaks in right away, and you make sure to wipe back any excess with a lint-free cloth. The premise of this stuff is that it soaks into the pores of the wood and then hardens over time to form a sealed surface that is resistant to water. It's not going to give you an ultra-durable finish like a polyurethane wood, but to me, this is a nice natural alternative, similar to furniture wax, that will give a good enough finish, especially for a piece like this that's not going to be used like a dinner table would, for example.
I did give all of the top surfaces and the drawer fronts two coats of this hemp oil just for extra measure. Hemp oil is nice and moisturizing for your hands as well, which is an added benefit.
It does have a scent to it. I didn't find it too offensive or chemically at all. It's more like a scent of almonds almost, but I did leave these pieces to dry in a spare room or in my garage for about a week or so, just to give them that time to cure and also to let that scent dissipate before I stick this thing beside my head all night.
Hardware
The original handles were quite similar between the two dressers. The one with three drawers has six puls, and the one with a single drawer only has one, and they're in a similar style. But I wanted to give this color a bit of an update, so I decided to use gilding wax, which is a wax similar to furniture wax that you can use over top of chalk paint as well as on metal like this.
Wax does take about 24 to 48 hours to harden, so you have to give it that little bit of grace period. Make sure you don't touch it too much or get any wax over your wood either.
You could also buy some alternate hardware off of Amazon or Etsy or anything like that. There are some great options out there if you want to switch up your look as well.
The Reveal
So what do you think of the final look? I think these look awesome.
This wasn't my original inspiration; I kind of pivoted and adjusted along the way. And though this isn't my typical style, I absolutely love how these turned out. The color is rich and warm. I think the paint, even though it is a gray tone, does match very well and brings out a nice highlight of the pieces. Though they are different styles, there is a cohesiveness about them and a richness that I'm really enjoying.
I think this mismatched style is really achievable, and there's so much room for creativity here. Plus, it definitely fits the budget. All in with materials, I was probably around $85 to $90 for these two, which is unreal.
If you saw anything you think I could have done better or you have any suggestions for the future, please let me know. I am always open to improvement. I will catch you in the next one!