There is something lovely which draws me in about white furniture. It makes me think of French design: big white couches, gold mirrors and worn white headboards.

When one of the brass handles on my bedside tables broke I took this as an invitation to try something new with them. It was my first (furniture) DIY project but I was feeling ready to give it a go!

I had bought these two bedside tables from a Belmont Salvos store when I first moved into a new apartment. They were only $10 each, were a kind of heavy timber and I loved the brass look of the handles.

Here’s what I used:

Some sanding buffers

White paint  (Probably bought about $20-25 in total)

Gold paint (Around the $5 mark)

A gloss/shine finish (I already had this but Bunnings sells them for around $15)

Screwdrivers (I needed a couple of different sizes, I just bought cheap ones from Bunnings, about $4)

8 brass knobs (On sale, was around $15-$20 for 4)

4 ceramic knobs (I think was about $16)

I first went to Bunnings and found two sets of brass handles for the bottom two drawers. I like the fact that these sets are slightly different. As you can see, the middle drawers have quite plain knobs while the knobs on the bottom drawer are a little more elaborate.

I wanted something special for the top feature drawers and found exactly what I wanted at Eclectica on Pakington Street, Geelong. They sell cute ceramic knobs in sweet pastel colours, there were pink, golds and creams available but I had my heart set on a white and gold theme.

All I did to make this happen was:

Take out the old handles

paint both the drawers and case (2 layers of paint) and set them with a gloss finish

Paint the gold detail around the frame of the drawers

Screw the knobs on.

My fiancé helped me with some painting but all in all, it was pretty much all my doing. This was a really empowering project because I realised that even a DIY beginner like me could revamp some furniture.

Tada! Now I have two pretty, unique bedside tables that I can feel proud to have revamped. They’re not perfect and that’s why I like them. My style is more “life in motion” than picture perfect anyway. Hope you liked my first DIY blog post!