A nightstand in semi-gloss armor

Hello gorgeous.

This is actually a project I was working on while completing my dresser/desk/chestofdrawersthing and my favorite thing so far, my entertainment center. (For the record, I do not necessarily suggest having three projects going at once. It's like reading three books at once - all the details get muddled.)

Since I got a new bed comforter and stuff for Christmas and switched my living room and bedroom colors and since the nightstand that I had throughout college was an old end table of my grandfather's and my nightstand in grad school was a Target shelf turned on its side and since my nightstand on my externship was an unbalanced Goodwill wooden table-ish thing, I figured it was finally time to get a new nightstand.

But surprise! Nightstands are like stupid expensive. Seriously, $79 for a little bitty piece of wood with one drawer and a handle if you're lucky?! No thanks. I'll just do it myself!

So I found this little 1980s ugly ducking at the same place I found my entertainment center, on the same day. It was also on sale, so I got it for $15 instead of $25, which I figured was a good deal since it was in great shape.

It looked a little lopsided since it was missing a handle, kinda like it was missing an eye. Pirate nightstand!

I took this little friend home and primed it, because that's what you apparently do before you paint things. I might have sanded it, too, but then again, I might not have, because sanding is for the birds.

Primed and...

...ready to go!

And I painted it black using a little roller and some semi-gloss paint samples (you can't beat $3! Especially when one is free with a coupon!)

But unfortunately, it was kinda tough to paint. It was drippy and there were lines and stuff all over it and it just didn't look smooth. That's because I have no real skill in this and just do things halfway until they look okay. But the best part? NO TAPING. YAY.

It turned out okay, though, that the paint wasn't perfect the first time, because guess what? When you use red spray paint, as seen in the Red Spray Paint Debacle Slash Was There A Murder Here episode of Lauren Fixes Furniture, it gets all over everything, including innocent little nightstands. It looked like it had a dusty coating on it that just wouldn't come off. So I painted it again, and aside from messing up the front of the drawer and being too lazy busy and having lots of important things to do with my under-employed time so I just left it messed up, it came out better.

I added these adorable drawer pulls from Hobby Lobby, after traveling to three different stores because it seems that someone else in Northeast Tarrant likes mercury glass knobs as well and bought them all, and gave it a little old-school glam without going overboard and heading into the Circle of Hell known as Bling.

I am going to wax this little guy up to give him a really good sheen, and he will be allllllll ready to go to my new place (wherever that it) and hold things like my glasses, a lamp, and my cat's body as she takes over what is obviously her new throne. Good thing it's painted black.