A paint sprayer made all the difference in making this nightstand makeover an easy project my son and I could do together.
This is a sponsored conversation in partnership with Wagner Spray Tech. All opinions, pictures and text are my own.
Years ago I bought a yellow nightstand for my son’s room off a FB consignment page. It looked really cute when I went to go pick it up and the seller was so proud about the “chalk” paint she used to paint it. As my son got older, he didn’t love the yellow color. And I don’t know what kind of “chalk” paint she used on it, it was the worst. I’ve used chalk paint and I’ve never had it do what this paint did.
The paint would just peel off in strips. Once one little part came off, my son then just started peeling it off in sections or scratching off the paint. It started to look horrible. And my son started bugging me to paint it red. Red is his favorite color and I knew red would go great in his room. I loved the cute shape of the nightstand so I decided a nightstand makeover was in order.
I’m not a huge fan of redoing furniture pieces. There is a lot of work and time involved in finishing furniture. I crossed paths with some of the folks from Wagner demonstrating their new line of Studio paint sprayers. Once I saw how easy and quickly their Studio Plus sprayer painted tables, chairs, baskets, etc., I knew my dilemma was solved. I reached out the company and sent them a picture of the beautiful yellow nightstand I wanted to makeover, and they were so nice to send me a Wagner Studio Plus paint sprayer from their new craft line series of sprayers to help with my project.
Since my son was eager to get this project started, I had him help with the most important (and worst) part of the job, stripping/sanding all the old paint off. I probably wouldn’t have had to do so much prep work if that horrible paint wasn’t all over the nightstand. I was afraid that if I didn’t take it off, the new paint would just start peeling off since the yellow wasn’t really sticking to the wood.
It took a couple days to get all the old paint off the nightstand, but he was a determined helper so it all worked out. Then it got really hot here in AZ, and I knew I needed to paint it outside in the yard in case there was overspray. So we waited until it was a bit cooler before we could put the Studio Plus to work. He was so patient with me. 🙂
We covered all the hardware for the drawer slides so they wouldn’t get covered in paint and ruin the function of the drawer. We set up our spray area in the backyard and got everything ready to go.
For this project I did NOT go with chalk paint. I probably could’ve, but decided on a laytex interior paint. I did NOT water my paint down but I did strain it as I poured it into the paint cup for the sprayer. The Studio Plus comes with 2 different nozzles to use depending on what type of project you are doing and the finish you want. I used the control finish nozzle for this project. But I think it was a small enough project that I could’ve used the detail finish nozzle.
Another favorite feature of the Studio Plus is the compact size. The paint “gun” is really light weight and the air hose is super long so I had a good area to move around. I had always been super afraid of paint sprayers (not sure why). They were always intimidating. But once I saw this one in action, I had more confidence to give it a go myself.
The Studio Plus has 2 air power adjustments. I attached my hose to the sprayer and turned on the sprayer to number 2, I wanted to make sure I had enough pressure, and the hose popped out. So make sure and get that hose nice and snug before starting. Once the hose was secure, I decided to go with 1 power, I adjusted the paint flow to the max to get started. I did a test spray area and determined that I needed to lower the paint flow, but the power was perfect.
Once I had my settings just right, I got busy spraying the dresser. This is the part I did myself. I’m sure my son could’ve used the sprayer, and done a fine job, but I wanted to get the job done a bit faster than if I would’ve had a helper. 🙂
It covered the nightstand really well and would’ve been fine after my first few passes, but some areas of the raw wood soaked up the paint more than others. I did one coat and then waited about 30 minutes for it to dry a bit before adding a second coat.
The result after letting it dry over night… one super cute red nightstand and one super cute happy boy! He was so excited to see it back in his room when he got home from school the next day!
I have to say, the studio plus paint sprayer was so amazing in helping to finish this nightstand makeover project. I can’t image how long it would’ve taken me to do by hand with a brush or roller. The worst part was prepping the nightstand to get started in the first place!
I will say that clean up was a bit more time consuming than I anticipated. I wanted to make sure I got all the paint out of the sprayer before I put it away so that it’d be ready to go for next time. It wasn’t difficult, it just took some time. But anytime you have to clean up after a painting job is tedious.
The Studio Plus sprayer was the perfect size sprayer for this project. It’s the perfect size for small to medium projects and really you could use it to spray paint a wall if you needed to. It can be used with chalk, milk and laytex paint (some thinning or paint conditioning may be required), stains, urethanes and sealers. I definitely want to seal the top of this nightstand to keep it looking this good for a long time.
If you are a DIYer and love refinishing furniture, this is a great sprayer to add to your wish list! Or to gift to your favorite DIYer.
Thank you to Wagner for helping me make my sons nightstand makeover dreams come true! 🙂
Happy Painting!
Liz
Comments & Reviews
Marijane says
Great improvement on that nightstand. Wonderful helper. Is he for hire?