White Nightstand - Madeover Trinca-Ferro Style

I was approached about a month ago by a company called Trinca-Ferro. I’ll be honest and say that I’d never heard of them before, but they inquired as to whether I’d be interested in trying out some of their ceramic furniture knobs on a makeover piece for the blog.

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I’d never used ceramic knobs before. I didn’t even know that there were options for ceramic knobs beyond a plain white or kid-themed ones. To date, I’ve used mainly metal handles and knobs on my pieces because they were what I was familiar with and I knew where to purchase (at a decent price).

Boy was I wrong! Yes, I was provided these knobs for free, but that doesn’t change the fact that these are gorgeous and incredibly affordable – and make a HUGE difference on any furniture you plan to refinish/update or simply change the look of.

To try out a few knobs, I asked that the company send me “whatever they wanted”, but with the provision that whatever they sent be “pinnable” (meaning not plain-jane boring).

Look at these beauties:

This ceramic knob is called Tangier and the above photo really doesn’t do it justice – the white is crisp and clean and the orange and navy are perfectly painted. Best part is that you can get them for less than $7 US per! (If you don’t buy a lot of handles or knobs, this is a really good deal – I’ve paid over $14/per for some of my pieces)

So, what to do, what to do?

Funnily enough, about the same time that these knobs arrived, a friend dropped off an old nightstand that she no longer wanted.

Sure the top was in need of a little touch-up,

but look at the lines on this piece! Absolutely gorgeous!

I knew I wanted a two-tone piece – I find that painted surfaces show scuff marks really easily – but staining and then varnishing a surface won’t show any marks whatsoever – definitely what you’d want for a desk, dresser or nightstand top.

I stripped down the top…

and found that it was a veneer surface and not solid wood all the way through.

No worries for the top of the white nightstand, but devastating when it came to the routered edges – there was no grain left at all to stain and show off. I attempted staining the edges just to see if it might blend in a bit, but no luck… now it had to be painted.

Okay, suck it up – it’s not the first mistake I’ve ever made. I lightly sanded the rest of the piece – just enough to rough up the surface, and then added two coats of Kilz primer to block any of the dark stain from bleeding through the new white I was going with. (as a side note, even if I’d gone with painting this night table navy – which I was tempted to do – I still would have included the primer step for adhesion and longevity of your piece).

I lightly sanded the entire piece smooth (after the primer was dry), with a 220 grit sandpaper, and then applied two coats (with drying time in between) of a “Special Walnut” stain to the top.

I decided I’d better varnish the top as well – before painting the rest of the nightstand – so that if I did splatter paint anywhere it would be easy to wipe off and not soak into the stain. With a veneer surface, there isn’t room for additional sanding – you get one kick at the bucket before you sand right through it.

Two coats of triple-thick varnish – with dry time and sanding in between – and the top was gorgeous.

Three coats of Behr’s “Crystal Cut White” on the body of the nightstand and it was almost done….

but not quite…

You can’t have gorgeous knobs like these and a boring white bedside table – I wanted to bring in some of the orange and/or navy somewhere else on the white nightstand.

The drawers were in perfect shape, so painting the sides of them would have been a waste. I debated on painting either the cylinders on either side of the white nightstand, or some of the detailing around them – but I wasn’t confident I could pull it off.

I still had that scruffy routered edge/lip I needed to deal with, so I decided to try out adding some small stripes… to make my error look intentional, and to tie the Trinca-Ferro knobs in with the rest of the piece.

I used painter’s tape and a very small paintbrush and added a few coats of both orange and navy to the surface of the white nightstand top and to the edge leading down to the lip.

Enough to coordinate, but not enough to be offensive or garish.

I gave the stripes a very light sanding so they were as smooth to the surface as I could get, and then sealed them with a coat of triple-thick varnish as well.

Neutral enough to go in either a masculine or feminine room – but with a touch of colour for style and impact.

Imagine this next to a bed with navy and orange throw pillows:

Gorgeous!

Thank you Trinca-Ferro, I will absolutely, positively, indubitably be ordering from you again!

Readers: this is a sponsored post in that I was provided the knobs free-of-charge, but my opinion and comments are sincere.

For more styles and selection, please check out Trinca-Ferro.com – and tell your friends! (shipping available to Canada, USA, UK, Ireland, Australia, Brasil and Deutschland)