I went thrifting recently and found the cutest nightstand. The lines were good, the bones were solid, and the drawers opened and closed easily thanks to their dovetail joinery. But the finish? It had definitely seen better days after many years of use. So, I decided to give it a fresh look and create my very own floral painted nightstand!

Floral Painted Nightstand: My Thrifted Folk Art Makeover

SUPPLIES

TSP (for cleaning the nightstand)
Primer
White chalk paint (Cotton)
Pink paint (Beloved Pink)
Blue paint (Early September)
Green paint (Wishful Green)
Yellow paint (Sweet as Honey)

BEFORE

I got this nightstand from the thrift store for $15. The lines are great, but it was pretty beat up with scratches and water rings. However, I couldn’t leave it behind! So I brought it home and I thought I’d share the process of making it over.

step 1- The Design Process

To begin this project, I brainstormed four fun design ideas:

Gingham pattern

Pastel rainbow stripes

Folk art / floral inspired design

An Anthropologie-style floral painted nightstand

To help me visualize these options, I used ChatGPT’s image tool. I uploaded a photo of the nightstand on a white background and gave prompts for each idea. For example- “please make me an image that shows how this nightstand would look like painted with a mint gingham / buffalo check pattern all over it.” The tool produced mockups that made it so much easier to picture the final look.

Once I settled on the folk art design (thanks to the overwhelming votes on social media!), I even had ChatGPT help create a side-view mockup so I could see the design all the way around.

Note, using AI means it isn’t perfect and might have some strange issues. I didn’t like how the design on the front of the nightstand wasn’t symmetrical so I tweaked my design a little so it was. But it was a great starting point to work from.

step 2- Prepping the Nightstand

The first step was to remove the drawers and hardware (the drawer pulls) so I could work more easily. I gave the whole nightstand a thorough cleaning with TSP to make sure the paint would stick (and all the gunk from the nightstand is off). I also sanded the top down to bare wood because I prefer the look (and easy cleaning!) of a natural wood top over paint.

Then I applied two coats of primer to the sides and drawer fronts to help the paint adhere to the old finish. After the primer dried, I painted everything (except the top) with white chalk paint in the color Cotton, which gave me a fresh, bright base for the design. The chalk paint took 3 coats of paint to get full coverage.

I like using chalk paint for furniture because I find it’s less sticky with a faster dry time between coats. The thin coats produce very minimal brush marks.

step 3- Sketching on the Design

With the base dry, I started sketching my folk art floral design onto the nightstand using a pencil. To help me stay on track, I kept my computer open right next to me with the folk art mockup pulled up on the screen. That way, I could glance at it while I worked and match the shapes and layout as I went.

Sometimes I’d mess up with my sketches. But since I used a pencil, I just erased the mistake and moved on. It was pretty easy for me to translate the folk art design from the screen onto the actual furniture.

For the drawers, I put the hardware back on and inserted the drawers so I could work the design around the drawer pulls.

step 4- Painting the Design

Once the design was sketched, I began painting over the pencil marks using my chosen pastel colors. This is a slow process, but it was fun to see the design come together!

If any pencil marks still showed through after the first coat, I went over them with a second layer of paint. Hint- draw lightly with the pencil to avoid having to do lots of coats to cover the pencil. I did a second layer of paint on most areas.

Here’s the paint colors I used- Pink is Beloved Pink, Yellow is Sweet as Honey, Green is Wishful Green, and Blue is Early September. I have a lot of sample jars of latex paint on hand. So I used what I already had to create the design. They all have a satin finish which really stands out against the matte finish of the white chalk paint background.

To give the floral design more depth and dimension, I added shading and veining by using slightly darker versions of each paint color for the details on the leaves and flowers. Or you can add brown to the lighter paint colors to deepen it enough to work for shading. That little extra touch really helped bring the design to life!

The Final Result

This project turned a beat-up thrift store find into something full of personality and charm. The floral painted nightstand is now a beautiful storage piece for my craft room, and it’s one of my favorite DIYs to date.

If you’re considering transforming furniture, I highly recommend trying a hand-painted design. It’s a fun way to add character and tell a story through your decor!

The folk art trend is really big right now- I’m seeing folk art painted furniture and doors and I think it’s a really great way to personalize a space. It does take awhile to get the look though.

price breakdown

For this project, I spent $15 on buying the thrifted nightstand. Then I used paint that I had on hand. So this was a VERY affordable project at $15. And now I have more storage in a room that was very much lacking it. Plus I got to rescue a piece of furniture from the thrift store which is a definite win-win situation!

In conclusion, if you’re thrifting and see a piece of furniture with potential, remember that paint can totally transform it! It’s worth saving quality pieces that you can update with some paint to completely customize it.