Melody's Turquoise Bedroom Set

A while back, Melody purchased the french side tables from me.  She asked if I would also paint her bedroom set.  I haven't been doing custom jobs lately, but in my few emails with Melody, I just liked her so much I wanted to help make her turquoise bedroom set dream happen! :)  This is what we started with~ a bed, dresser and two nightstands. (I had already stripped and sanded the tops here)

I went to Home Depot, and they did a color match for the color Melody had chosen~

I stripped the tops of the dresser and nightstands~

*Just a little tip~ it's a good idea to wear pants and long sleeves (along with all the other saftey equipment) even in the summer time when stripping furniture because I swear, little drops somehow find a way to sneak on your skin even if you're being really careful, and this stuff burns, people!

After applying the stipper, I covered it with wax paper so it wouldn't dry out~ Christa gave me this tip awhile back!

After scraping off the stripper, it needed a light sanding to make it all nice and smooth!

Perfect!

Next the bed frame and bases of the dresser and nightstands all got a nice sanding.

Before painting, I applied a little vaseline to some of the areas where I knew I wanted it to look nice and chippy~

After everything was sprayed and dried, I did lots and lots of distressing.  Melody wanted it really shabby, which is my favorite!  I used all kinds of things to distress~ my sander, sanding sponges, sand paper, razor blades, and paint scrapers!

I brushed on some RL glaze in Tobacco~

I ended up sanding off quite a bit of it, just leaving a touch because it turned the turquoise a little too green. :)

Then I mixed up a whitewash of part water and part Old White Chalk Paint and brushed it over all the painted areas.

  Again, I sanded off most of the wash, just leaving behind traces of white here and there.

Alot of the time when distressing, the original stain color gets sanded off down to bare wood.  I wanted the original colored stain to show under the distressed areas.  I found a stain that was a great match, and rubbed it over all the places that I had sanded and left raw wood.

 

The stain will change the paint color as well as the wood if it is not removed from the painted areas.  Mineral spririts works awesome~just wipe away the excess stain that gets on the painted areas.  It's all good!

The bases of the dresser and nightstands all got two coats of wipe on poly~

I stained the tops of the dresser and nightstands with the same stain color.  Unfortunately when I had previously sanded, I ran into plywood.  Ugh!  Melody really wanted stained tops, so I didn't want to have to paint over the wood.  I thought maybe a nice white wash would hide the imperfections, and yet still allow the wood to show through.  Worked like a charm, and I think the whitewashed tops actually look waaay cuter than just the regular old stained tops!  Sometimes Plan B is better!  :)

I finished the tops with three coats of Tung Oil~

Here is the before picture of the nightstands~

Here they are, all fixed up~

The sweet fabric is from Hobby Lobby~

whitewashed top~

The before picture of the dresser~

After~

All together!!!

Don't forget the bed!

*Melody has an incredibly inspirational business, website and blog called Brave Girls Club.  Through colorfully happy art, she teaches young girls and women to remember, embrace and be restored to who they once were, before the negative effects of life creeped in.  I hope you will go check out her site and blog!  It's awesome!  :)