Driftwood Rast Nightstands - Take 2
Remember that time when I had a full blog post written, formatted, linked and saved and then my computer crashed and I lost it all? How many of you have been there? Raise your hand if Microsoft Word didn't save that paper you'd been writing for the last 2 hours or your email crashed and your draft is gone.
Let's all take a moment of silence to remember our lost work and mourn the time we'll never get back.
Okay, okay, I know I'm being dramatic but I seriously had this blog post all ready to go this morning and my website server glitched on me. When I lost it all, I had to step away and regroup.
So here we go! Let's regroup, shall we?
Nightstands are super popular pieces in my buying market. Everyone seems to be on the lookout for a pair of matching nightstands (or any duo that can be used for bedside tables). I try to buy them whenever I can because they always sell quickly.
Back in January, I was in a nightstand lull and couldn't find any that were reasonably priced to resell. Now to be fair, there were lots of cheap options but their shapes were waaaay too dated for my taste. To appeal to my buyers and keep costs down, I went to Ikea and bought two pairs of Rast nightstands.
I stained one pair using Varathane's Weathered Wood Accelerator
When I brought them to my booth at Morgantown Market, they sold a few weeks later to a very sweet follower. You can read their full makeover in this post.
So when my Instagram friend, Stephanie Spring, contacted me and was asking about nightstands for her home, I offered this combination again because I had two remaining Rasts in my stash from my January Ikea run.
Stephanie has an amazing blog and she is super passionate about living a healthy lifestyle. Her site is filled with fabulous articles about beauty, food and the simple pleasures in life. Stephanie has done freelance photography for Marian Parsons (aka Miss Mustard Seed) and the MMS Milk Paint line and we both worked in Marian's booth during her last season of Lucketts Spring Market.
Stephanie wanted the same driftwood stained look on her set of nightstands, but I went about it in a slightly different manner than last time. Instead of assembling the Rasts and then staining them, I laid out all of the wood pieces on a work table and stained them before assembly. This made things much easier and it allowed me to make sure every surface was stained and sealed before I followed the Ikea picture directions to put it all together. If you follow me on Instagram, you've seen the process in my stories.
Stephanie chose a satin finish for her topcoat, so I used the fabulous High Performance Topcoat by General Finishes.
To ensure a super smooth finish, I sanded with 400 grit in between each layer of topcoat. I applied three layers total so Stephanie would have plenty of protection!
The sun was out all day today, so I took full advantage and properly staged the freshly finished nightstands for their beauty shots.
Stephanie opted to keep the wooden knobs the Rasts came with, but you could always swap them out for different hardware if you'd like to replicate this look for yourself.
I absolutely love how Varathane's Weathered Wood Accelerator transforms the boring 'ol pine into a work of art!
My favorite spots are the knots. The swirls of wood grain add so much interest and I like how the concentration of wood tannins didn't accept the driftwood stain. They maintained their warm tones, which created variation. Don't they look like little "wood hurricanes"?
To make sure there was plenty of depth of color, I applied two coats of the accelerator on each board. (This is also why it took me a few weeks to complete this project!) Man, was it ever worth it!
There are other raw pine furniture options from Ikea besides the Rast. You can use this technique on any of those pieces and create your own driftwood stained masterpiece!
