D.I.Y. Nailhead Side Table

I am so excited to show you this amazing tutorial on nailhead furniture I found at Mad in Crafts!  I love the way this side table turned out, imagine the possiblities!  This "nailhead" side table cost just under $10.00 to remake from an old outdated nightstand.  The nighstand lacked any kind of pizzazz at it's original state.  After adding new paint and some determination Jessica Hill from Mad in Crafts turned this table into gorgeous and stylish piece of furniture.  This can even rival the inspired piece from Bernhardt!

Cabrillo Nailhead Chest from Bernhardt.

To get started you will need:

Piece of furniture

Sanding block

Primer paint

Paint (color of your choice)

Thumb tacks

Drill

I am sure we all have or have access to one of these old nightstands… 

Remove the hardware and sand down the piece to get the shine off so that the paint can adhere to it.

After sanding, prime the whole piece using Gripper primer.  Gripper is an excellent primer, less expensive than the other brands and it covers great. Paint the furniture with your choice of paint color.

Once the paint is dry, figure out the nailhead design you desire.  Being that this piece of furniture was oak, pushing the tacks into the wood is not an option.  If the wood is a soft wood, you may able to lightly hammer on the tacks.  In this case, small holes were drilled using the smallest drill bit (1/32) at 1 cm apart for a continuous line of tacks, being that the tacks are 1 cm in diameter.  Be careful to only drill deep enough for the tack to stay steady in the hole.  You want to be able to hammer the tack into the wood itself, otherwise the tack will fall right back out.

Gently hammer the tacks into the pre-drilled holes.

For a repeated flower design, cut out a simple template out of cardstock junk mail.  Mark the dots around the template at 1 cm intervals.

Drill, hammer, repeat.

This process could be used to jazz up headboards, mirrors, 
cheap IKEA furniture; the possibilities really are endless.

What do you think?

What are you up to lately?  I love to know!