Updating the 80's

I know they say the 80's are coming back, but that doesn't mean I want it's style in my house!  Furniture can be expensive and when you have a good quality piece of furniture it pays to find a way to update it rather than throw it out.  This is where paint comes in!


I still have the bedroom set that was mine when I was a child.  Needless to say it has the 80's written ALL over it.  Or should I say it HAD the 80's written all over it!  With a little sand, paint, and patience we now have a stylish cute pink bedroom set for my daughters' room.

Ok, since I didn't get "before" pictures I had to search my old pictures, and luckily (I can't believe I'm saying this) the kids had taken pictures with my camera and I was able to find some with the bedroom set in the background.  In the background of this one is the nightstand.

Here's the dresser and hutch to the right, and the book shelf to the left.

First what I had to do was bring everything out to the garage and take all the drawers out.  Any rough area was sanded (it wasn't too bad so not much needed sanding) 

I bought some paint & primer in one paint.  Even with a higher quality paint it still took 7-8 coats to full cover everything.  We used a paintbrush to get in the grooves, then  a roller to go over the rest of it.  After all the coats, once we moved it into the bedroom I was still seeing small spots where we didn't get the paintbrush in some areas, so what I plan to do is destress it a little so the off-white will show on purpose and make any mistakes not as noticable.
Here's the final product! (I have to find more drawer knobs for the nightstand since 2 of them broke)

I really like how the white knobs look on the dresser! Now if I can just find a couple more to replace the ones that broke!
Now the set matches their bedroom perfectly!