Bringing Grandma's nightstand into this millennium with a little mirrored magic

I  like to make furniture from scratch but I also love a great rehab. And when I’m looking for something to give new life... I love love love a piece of furniture with “good bones”. 

Do the legs have a nice shape? Are there interesting unique curves to it? Is it sturdy and thick? I feel like I’m objectifying the furniture a little here. Like dudes do with their cars! Maybe I’ll start naming my pieces too... Ronnie, Bobby, Ricky...(I digress).

So when I came across this $20 steal, with fun curving, I knew this would be a great project.

Mirrored pieces can make a room feel so chic, so it's the direction I decided to take. However, the same thing that made this nightstand fun and unique was going to prove a challenge as there is only so much bend and shape you can get with mirrors. 

I found an amazing local glass shop to cut mirrors for me for the top and the sides, both of these surfaces were flat so made for an easy job. I brought the nightstand in and they traced the tops for cutting, estimated the job costs and I had those pieces back in about a week's time. The front of the drawers were where I met my challenge. I really didn't want to abandoned the mirrored look here, so what else could I do?

I always get unexpected inspiration from friends. A friend says one thing and it sparks an idea that helps me figure out my challenge (so this is key for me in my process... sharing my projects). Someone mention tiles and boom... I realized I could keep the mirrored effect by creating a mosaic of mirrored tiles (which I purchased from Michael's). Which I applied with tile glue (also from Michael's, didn't I tell you, I love that store).

Before glueing the tiles, I puzzled out all the pieces. During this process, I found I would need to cut some of the tiles where full tiles wouldn't fit. I used a mirror cutting tool to score the tiles. Some were cracked in the process, good thing I'm not superstitious. 

Regarding the rest of the nightstand, I still wanted a slight nod to the heritage of the original nightstand so I kept it vintage by mixing gold and silver.  I started with a metallic silver spray paint. Then did a second coat using gold leaf rub. This was a great way to have a mixed metals look so that I wasn’t locked into only silver or gold when I wanted to incorporate other accessories in my room.

And the final touch! To dress it up a little, I found the cutest little Mother of Pearl knobs from Anthropologie. Luckily, I only needed two since those suckers were $14 a piece... more than I even paid for that darn dresser. 

And voila, perfectly imperfect! Hand-crafted! Just what I wanted. I'd say not bad for the second piece I'd ever created.