Cute, Unique and Easy Nightstand!

When we moved in to our first home I was least concerned with our bedroom, seeing as the house needed a lot of attention in the living room/ dinning room and other high traffic areas. But lately i've been noticing cute bedrooms on Pintrest and decided it was time to do some sprucing of my own. I thought, I'll start simple....new nightstand. Between price range, storage needs and size I found this plain jane "chest of drawers" from Ikea.

For $69.00 I thought how could I go wrong (quality was suprisingly good). Some new hardware and I could picture this dresser in a whole new light. I decided on a trip to Anthropologie for knobs. They were a bit more than I had planned on spending ($12.00 ea) but I figured I got off easy on the dresser. They were exactly what I wanted, vintage looking, sparkly and classy. 

Supplies:

Ikea Dresser

Knobs

Tools:

Cordless Drill

Drill Bit (1/4 in. for the knobs we used)

Tape Measure

Pencil

File

Dykes

Cresent Wrench 

For this size dresser we decided knob placement was perfect at 8 inches in from each drawers edge and 4 inches down from the top of each drawer. Measured and marked where holes were to be drilled. Drilled carefully through each mark. Installed knobs, straightened and tightened. Cut excess thread off, that was exposed in the interior of the drawer. Filed remaining backing to remove sharp edges.

I'm happy with the turn out, simple, fun and looks much better than the lonely shelf I was using as a nightstand previously! 

Painted Fireplace

After the chevron wall was done, our brick fireplace stood out like a sore thumb. Unfortunately, many projects create the domino effect in our house! So after a couple weeks and some research we decided to paint our brick fireplace. I found a tutorial on Lowe's site, picked up the supplies and had at it.

I began with cleaning the fireplace. I scrubbed each brick with sponge and water.

Click this link to see the tutorial I used from Lowes
 

I started with a coat of primer. This was the longest step. I made sure I had full coverage of all brick and grout. 1 ruined paint brush later (frayed from pushing between bricks to reach grout) , and the first step was finished!

The next day I started with the base color (Desert Fortress) , recommended by Lowes. This did cover much easier than the primer. The color looked a little pink but I was hoping the final sponge coat would make it look closer to the picture I was referencing.

Lowes tutorial pic

Finally, I was ready for the last step. Sponging the darker color to the brick face (smoked oyster) . I cut the large sponge to fit my bricks and began dipping in the darker color and lightly pressing on the fireplace. I was anxious to begin getting a sense for the final results.

Here is the final product...

My Inspiration pic

I am so happy to have that dark red brick gone! The color blends much better with our wall color and home decor. The project did take a few days but was very cost effective and made a big impact!