Faux Planked Top Nautical Nightstand Makeover {with Map Drawer Lining & DIY Sisal Rope Handles}

I will show you how to make this nightstand makeover with my easy tutorial!

I love having errands to run on Saturday mornings. It is garage sale day. And you just never know what you might find…if only you stop and look.

I have made some of my best purchases that way. And when I don’t have time to stop, it pains me…to wonder what I might be missing out on.

Do you know what I’m talking about? That feeling of a bargain left unfound?

Clearly my husband doesn’t because he has strongly encouraged me to avoid garage sales until I work my way through the so-called junk (treasures) we already have stored in our garage… I try to explain it to him. What if the next one has the mother load?? I just need to ‘check’….

This chunky traditional nautical nightstand revamp that I made over with a faux planked top, map lined drawers, and DIY Sisal Rope handles is the perfect example of one of those spontaneous driving-down-the-road-spotting-a-garage-sale-sign-stops…and I’m glad I stopped.

For this old dated old nightstand revamp I used Country Chic Paint in Simplicity (the white), Devotion (the red), and Midnight Sky (dark blue). You may know that I am on the Country Chic Paint Blog Squad this year and have gotten to makeover quite a few older furniture pieces with their amazing products.

I started by washing the nightstand thoroughly with soapy water and then filling in the damaged spots with some wood filler. I also removed the hardware and filled the holes. Once the wood filler was dry I sanded it down creating a smooth surface.

I decided to give it a coat of primer to start with since it was not made of real, solid wood and had a fairly glossy surface. After the primer was dry, I gave the base of the nightstand a coat of bold Devotion paint.

After the Devotion was dry, I did a top coat of Simplicity. As soon as I finished doing the top coat, I distressed the edges with a clean damp rag to remove some of the white Simplicity and reveal the red Devotion below.

For the top of the nightstand, I did an all-over base coat of Simplicity. Once dry, I used my brush to add in some loose stripes, creating a the look of a (faux) planked top. I started by adding in the stripes in Devotion…

And then added in some paint stripes in Midnight Sky.

To make the stripes slightly less solid looking, I waited until they were dry and then went back in with a very dry brush using a touch of Simplicity to create a more textured look to the planks.

I wanted to give the whole thing a more aged antique finish so I opted to use the dark, or antiquing, wax.

Once it was applied using my wax brush, I went back over it and buffed it off using a clean, lint-free cloth. There were a few spots that felt a little too antiqued or dark, so I used some clear wax on those areas to remove the dark wax a little. The trick to removing dark wax (or lightening it up) is to add clear wax over it and then buff it off.

Since I wanted to give this piece a nautical feel, I opted to use sisal rope for the handles. The roll of sisal rope that I used was picked up at Walmart.

Then I used a drill to create new holes for the sisal rope handles…

I fed the rope through one hole, tied it off inside the drawer, tied it again on the other side of the drawer. Also then I figured out how long I wanted them to be, tied off a knot at that length, and then fed the second end through the second hole. I finished it off by tying it off inside the drawer again.

For a little extra interest and fun, I Mod Podged some maps that I cut out of an old Atlas inside the drawers.

Done!

This painted furniture piece is the perfect chunky nautical nightstand for our boys’ shared nautical themed bedroom. I love the faux planked top and think that it, along with the rope handles, adds so much eye catching character to this once-dated nightstand.

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