Our bedside dressers were hand me downs and we liked the size and style of them and the fact they had two nice big drawers but weren't overly keen on the finish / wood effect. We therefore knew we would eventually replace them for something more to our taste it was just a question of finding some that weren't silly expensive and preferably had good drawer space. As you can guess we still have them; we haven't found any suitable for our requirements. We have seen lots that we have loved but not enough to pay over the top for them especially when the drawer space wasn't as good as what we wanted.

So last Sunday I decided I was going to do up our existing ones myself, starting with my one as the tester. A few coats of home made chalk paint and a good sanding (with extra sanding in some areas to distress it) and I had a new gorgeous night stand!! To finish it I applied a coat of wax and lacquer so it set and it now sits proudly in my corner of the bedroom looking gorgeous! I am so so happy with it. In the new year we are wallpapering the wall behind the bed and night stands with floral feature wallpaper so once that is done the room will look amazing and be pretty much how we want it.

As soon as mine was done I got to work on Patrick's which even meant painting later at night or sanding early in the morning. The coats of paint on Patrick's are much better than mine as I learnt the hard way that the paint covers better (and looks better) if it is thicker. Mine still look's fine and I am happy with it but I know Patrick's is more 'hard wearing'. Good job they aren't used for much then really! My next project is a table / bureau for the hall which will be used a lot so I know now a thicker coat of paint works better and will make it last a hell of a lot longer.