These pieces were a little scratched up and outdated, but knowing how to paint wood nightstands properly made all the difference. A new color is such an easy way to update older furniture, give it more style, and help it fit more seamlessly into your decor.

For more color or design inspiration before you start, check out our collection of painted nightstands ideas here. Now let’s get started with this makeover!

Two wooden nightstands on a wood floor with “before” written above them in large script font.

I love the look of these modern little nightstands with three drawers, but when we bought them from the estate sale, they looked a little bit rough and scratched up. Older furniture often has wear on the surface, but as long as it’s still sturdy, it is worth updating.

Nightstands are some of the most useful pieces in a bedroom because they keep everything you need close by. Having a matching set makes it even better since you get the same storage and style on both sides of the bed.

It’s hard to pass up a solid pair like this, especially when a simple update can make them look completely refreshed. So keep reading to see how we cleaned them up and transformed them with a fresh coat of paint!

Supplies Used for Painting Wood Nightstands

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Prepping Wood Nightstands

The first thing I did was strip the top of these nightstands. We’re not going to go into that, because we’re going to talk more about how to paint a wood nightstand, but if you want to know more about removing the old finish before staining, go over to our blog post on how to remove stain from wood without sanding.

I taped off the raw wood tops using painters tape and pretaped plastic so they wouldn’t get painted. Then we removed the hardware. We love this electric screwdriver that’s so easy to use. You just push it in, and it twists for you, so it saves so much time when removing and reattaching the hardware.

We set the hardware aside so we could put it back on after we were done painting. If you want to change yours to give it a new look, here’s my guide on how to change hardware on a dresser.

Then we cleaned the nightstands with Krud Kutter and a damp rag to get rid of all the grease and grime. This old furniture we bought was really gross. They’ve just been used for years and haven’t been cleaned. So we got rid of all that dirt so the paint would stick.

If there are any dings or scratches on your piece, fill those in and lightly sand them down with 220 grit sandpaper. We didn’t really have a ton of deep scratches to fill and fix on these. Check out my guide on how to repair damaged wood finish to learn how to tackle those imperfections.

Priming Wood Before Painting

After that, we took it outside to our backyard, set it on a table, and sprayed it with clear shellac. Even though you would think that it’s a topcoat, it’s actually a great primer. It helps the paint stick and prevents bleedthrough issues, so we love it as a primer underneath chalk paint. It’s so fast and easy to spray on. Then we let it sit for at least a few hours or overnight for the best results.

A wooden dresser on table outdoors, covered with plastic and tape on the top.

Since we were working with a medium tone paint, it was very likely that we would have bleedthrough stains, so my recommendation for using a medium to light color is to never skip the spray shellac.

It dries fast, but make sure you let it sit overnight so it can start to seal everything and cure in that amount of time. If you just paint over it after an hour, the primer will not do as well a job at sealing in the bleedthrough stains.

Vonforn Paint Sprayer

Country Chic Paint in Peacoat Blue

Varathane Water Based Polyurethane

Painting Wood Nightstands

I love spraying my paint on. You can spray chalk paint, milk paint, alkyd paint, and enamel paint. You can spray it all, even oil based paint. But I don’t because I don’t like the fumes, and the cleanup is a lot harder too.

I made my own homemade chalk paint with this specific sage green color that I don’t remember the color anymore, but I color matched it with Home Depot Behr latex paint in flat sheen. I mixed it with water and calcium carbonate powder, following my homemade chalk paint recipe here.

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Now, that’s not necessary, but latex paint doesn’t stick very well to slick surfaces. It’s made for walls or porous surfaces, so turning it into homemade chalk paint helps it to stick even better and not scratch off easily. Even if you topcoat latex, it’s still more likely to scratch off.

So I made it into chalk paint, and then I put it into our paint sprayer. I used our Wagner Double Duty sprayer, but it’s no longer available. Now I recommend using the Vonforn sprayer. It comes with the filters and everything that you need to get started. It’s much more powerful and sprays a fantastic glass like finish. You can check out my Vonforn paint sprayer review here.

Person using a paint sprayer to apply green paint on dresser

A closeup of a wooden drawer with painters tape and plastic covering over it

I sprayed the paint everywhere on these nightstands. I needed two to three coats for this light color. And yes, I did paint the insides of the drawer edges because I had those taped off with the pretaped plastic. I show how to tape off drawers for painting with a paint sprayer here.

A light green dresser with two slightly open drawers placed outdoors

Topcoating Chalk Paint

Then we added the topcoat. Chalk paint is very matte, and we need to topcoat it to make it look nice, easy to keep clean, and more durable. We put Varathane waterbased polyurethane in Satin in our sprayer just like the paint. I usually like to spray on three coats for maximum durability.

And then we stained the tops very carefully so as not to get stain on the paint. We used a mahogany stain because that was what our client requested. That gave us a fresh top that was no longer damaged. You can learn more about how to stain wood furniture here.

We put the original hardware back on, and here’s what they look like now! They’re so cute in this sage green color.

Two light green nightstands with dark stained tops

Full view of two light green nightstands with three drawers

Closeup of a light green dresser with a dark wooden top

More Before and After Makeovers

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Click any of these “before” photos below to view the “after” of that makeover.