Refinishing Our Bedroom Furniture

I realize the vintage/rustic/shabby chic look is on its way out (for now, it'll be back one day), but I've had this vision of distressed furniture for a while. We've only just now gotten around to doing it. It all started with me needing a bedside table when I moved into my apartment over 3 years ago. I just happened to pick out this nightstand at an antique store that was a deadringer for one I knew used to be mine (but had made its way to my dad's hunting camp). After reclaiming the hunting camp table, I was so pleased to find out that they were, in fact, matching pieces, albeit a few differences.

Fast forward 2 years and Kevin has just moved here and is living in our barren rental house. We manage to find a beautiful chest of drawer and dresser set, in very good condition. Mix all of that together and we have nice pieces of furniture but a very mismatched look.

Ladies, you know how you can nag your man OVER and OVER and OVER about something and it never gets done? That's how this furniture has been for us. Guys, you know how you've finally been nagged enough about something that one day you snap and just say, "OKAY, FINE, we're going to Lowe's to get the stuff we're doing it today!" - well that was what happened two Sundays ago and how I finally got my furniture refinished.

Enough talking, I'll let the photos speak for themselves.

View of our bed with the 2 same-style, mismatched-stained nightstands:

Doesn't Louie have quite the "come hither" look?

My side, hence the excess of junk.

Excuse the cords, I have to keep them hidden from Louie.

Kev's side, hence the lack of junk.

The great part about the distressed look is we didn't have to aim for perfection. We had a great time doing this project, spending many late nights on our back porch sanding, 

priming, 

then sanding again, 

then painting, 

and sanding again 

before a second coat of paint. 

After one final sanding, we applied Minwax Polycrylic as the top clear coat. 

As fun as this was, I think Kevin is convinced that I won't be doing any painting whenever we buy a house... I am very messy, in fact I still have paint in my hair and on my arms!

Here are a couple extra photos from the bedroom:

Check out the picture of my pup the night we got him!

View of the entire bedroom from our bathroom, all 4 pieces in sight.

There is SOMETHING about that dresser leg, he's already gotten it after we finished the project!

I hope you enjoyed these photos of our bedroom upgrade. Our goal is to use this in our guest bedroom whenever we buy a house and get an actual bedroom suite for us (to include a kingsize bed).
Tell me about any funny bloopers in your home improvement projects...