From Antique Vanity to New Farmhouse DIY Nightstands: A Tutorial

Our DIY nightstands all finished!

Being a military wife has its own unique struggles. One of which is making your furniture fit into houses of all different shapes and sizes. Which is why I recently had to make some DIY nightstands.

Our house in Texas is smaller than our house at Fort Bragg. So, when we moved our furniture into the master bedroom, it wouldn’t all fit.

Our nightstands were actually a set of end tables that matched our coffee table. But because they wouldn’t fit in our new room, we had to find new, smaller nightstands.

When it comes to furniture, we haven’t bought anything new, except our mattress and couch. Everything else has been given to us or thrifted and then refurbished.

You can see we have a pretty eclectic mix of furniture:

I love a good DIY project and I knew the perfect piece for our new DIY nightstands.

My dad has had an antique vanity sitting out in his barn for years and was more than happy to let me refurbish it (thanks, Pop!).

Here’s how we turned an antique vanity into nightstands.

What You’ll Need:

  • circular saw
  • screwdriver
  • orbital sander
  • sanding nets
  • primer
  • paint
  • mini paint roller
  • paint brush

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Step 1: Cut the Vanity in Half

The first step is to cut the vanity into 2 pieces.

First, we detached the mirror and set it aside. Then using a circular saw, we cut the top of the vanity next to the drawers.

We made sure to leave a few extra inches on the vanity top, in case we made a mistake routing the edge. It looked a little wonky because one side was longer than the other, but it’s better to be safe than sorry!

How we turned an antique vanity into nightstands.
(A before picture of one of the nightstands.)

Step 2: Sand It Down

After the nightstands were chopped into two separate pieces, it was time to sand them down and prep them for painting.

Before I started sanding, I removed the hardware from the drawers.

Using our orbital sander and 120-grit sanding discs, I scuff-sanded the frame of the nightstand. (Scuff sanding means lightly sanding the surface.) I just made sure to rough it up enough to give the paint something to adhere to.

However, I made sure to sand all of the varnish off of the tops, drawers, legs, and wood detail on the bottoms of the nightstands. These were sections that we were going to leave wood and not paint over.

Sanding our DIY nightstands.
(I took all of the old varnish off of the top of the nightstands.)

Step 3: Primer & Paint

Once sanding was complete on the DIY nightstands, it was on to priming and painting.

I taped off the wood detail on the bottom of the nightstands and the legs.

I used Zinsser Bulls Eye 1-2-3 Primer as a base for my paint.

**Pro Tip** When painting wooden furniture white (or any light color) you must use a primer to keep your paint from yellowing.

I covered the primer with a creamy white paint – Sherwin Williams Showcase Stain-Blocking Paint & Primer.

This paint also has a stain-blocking quality, which seems overkill, but once you spend hours refurbishing a piece of furniture and it turns yellow, you don’t take any chances!

Putting primer on our DIY nightstands.
(Adding primer to our DIY nightstands.)

Step 4: Staining & Touch Ups

While the paint was drying, I added stain to the pieces that were remaining wood.

We did a few touch-ups to the wood detailing on the bottom and the legs by scraping off paint that bled through the tape.

Touching up the wood details on our DIY nightstands.
(Touching up the wood details.)

Step 5: Add Hardware & Enjoy!

Finally, it was time to add the final touch and return the hardware to the drawers.

I liked the hardware that was on the vanity originally, so I just cleaned it up and re-used it.

The DIY nightstands fit so much better in our bedroom now! And they match our style and the rest of our thrifted/refurbished furniture.

Our DIY nightstands all finished!
(Our DIY nightstands are all finished!)
The wood details on the farmhouse nightstands.
(I adore the wood details on these farmhouse nightstands.)

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