Matching all of my bedroom furniture

Last fall I spent some time painting my dresser and my bookshelf in my bedroom. I decided that since I was going for a lighter, beachier feel in my room white colored furniture would be the way to go. There are several other pieces of furniture in my bedroom that aren't white- my desk, my jewelry armoire, and my tv stand..however for this project I am focusing on my nightstand.

Just for a heads-up: I don't plan on painting my desk, it is far too large and eventually it won't go in my bedroom so it won't need to match the other pieces. My jewelry armoire is a silver and matches just fine and since it was so expensive I don't ever plan on painting it. Lastly, my tv stand is borrowed from my parents and eventually I plan on replacing it with something white of my own.

So, long story short, I decided to paint my nightstand.

As you can see, it desperately needed a touch up. It was scratched, scraped and covered in crap. I've had this piece since I was in middle school (so we'll say 2000) so it has withstood quite a bit of use.

The first step I took was to sand the entire nightstand. This is my least favorite part by far, I think sandpaper sounds like nails on a chalkboard and I feel sick the entire time I do it. I know, I know I'm such a baby!

Then I painted the entire night stand (including the drawer knobs) and then I  decided that I wanted the drawer knobs to match the knobs on my dresser (meaning a trip to Walmart). So I gave the entire nightstand one coat of paint and left it to dry.

While I waited for the paint to dry I decided I should wash these filthy blinds. Look how gross they are! I got out a bucket of soap water and a rag and went to work cleaning them. Once I had one side cleaned, I flipped them around and did the other side.

Once I had three coats of paint on the nightstand and everything had dried nicely, I set it back up next to my bed (sans the drawers). I also just placed all these items on top quickly and then only left the lamp on top for the night.

I left both drawers out to dry overnight since I didn't want the paint to glue the drawers to the actual nigh stand (that would be a nightmare), but I did organize them, so once it's time to put them back in I will be all set to go.

This is the top drawer. I keep my sleep sprays (gifts) that I like to spray on my pillows before bedtime, some lotion, hand sanitizer, my Polaroid camera (blast from the past eh?), a sleep mask I like to use when I have headaches because it warms up in the microwave), a small flashlight, extra chapstick, floss, a small mirror, my fitness journal, my daily journal, and my Kindle.

In the bottom drawer I keep all my hair brushes, a few clips, hair straightener, blow dryer, curling iron, and a few hair products.

Doesn't it look so pretty?!

Get Out Dust!

I hate dust. Yuck.

It makes me sneeze and I am a huge advocate at regular dusting to keep that gross substance out of my house- however there are places that are a bit more difficult to dust on a weekly basis and only get cleaned once in awhile. Spring is an amazing time to clean out those areas and allow everything to air out. Over the past few days my mom and I have been hard at work getting some of those areas in our house cleaned out.

Roxy loves to help out with laundry by the way... Spring is a great time to not only wash all those winter clothes and store them away, but also to wash things that don't get washed all that often- like chair covers, blankets, pillows- all of which get dusty and dirty very easily!

Can't you see on her face how helpful she is with laundry? She loves to lay right on top of the piles I make...so helpful!

I spent some time sweeping out the garage the other day- there were a ton of leaves hanging around inside and Roxy really enjoyed watching the leaves I swept out come flying back in. At one point she cocked her head at me like 'that really is working well for you huh?' I like to think she is a bit sarcastic =)

Although the garage floor is still dirty and could probably use a good power washing- it is definitely much cleaner now. Remember when I reorganized the garage and used the shop-vac? Well it definitely could be done again- the garage is already dusty and gross and I would love to get out there and do it again- maybe next week!

I also have been working on some small spaces, such as my candle drawer. Although I recently cleaned out this drawer, it was just really messy in there and I have picked up a few candles recently that needed to be organized a bit better inside. So I took everything out...

Yes, I was washing ALL of my bedding-which is why my mattress pad is the only thing on my bed in the above pictures!

I do have quite a few candles, the majority of them I received as gifts but I have bought a few of them. I absolutely love burning candles- in case you weren't already aware of that fact. I do like to burn them according to seasons so right now I am loving summer scents!

After placing everything back in the drawer, it looked so much neater and much more manageable!

Finally a project my mom and I worked on together this week- this windowsill is always filled with blue glass (my mom collects blue glass) so we took everything off the windowsill and windows and washed everything by hand. Then we washed the windows and dusted all of the wood. We pulled up the blinds and let the light in and everything just seemed so much cleaner!

We did put all of the blue glass and other knick-knacks back on the windowsill (which my mom did-she likes everything in certain places...maybe I get my OCD from her?) and knowing that they are dust free and everything is clean makes things so much nicer!

What have you been spring cleaning lately?

Coming up on the blog:

My mom and I plan on taking all the outdoor furniture out of its basement storage and placing it where it belongs outside- most of it will probably need to be cleaned up a bit after being in the basement for so long too. There could potentially be an upcoming basement organization video. I am considering cleaning out the garage a bit more as well. I know that next week I will work on my closet a little bit as well.

Also within the next week I will be posting my April Birchbox which is on it's way! I will have my review on that later in the month, and also at the end of the month I will be doing an empties post, with all of my empty beauty products from March and April!

If anyone has a request on a blog post they would like to see or any suggestions for posts feel free to comment, or e-mail me at balancingonmytoes@gmail.com, I would love to hear from you!

Have a great day everybody!