Refinished furniture for under $100

Like I mentioned in my first post, my family has moved a lot in a short amount of time and the last time the Air Force moved us, our bedroom set took a huge beating--I was not a happy camper when I saw it. We couldn't afford to just go out and pick out something new, and I didn't want to get rid of our stuff anyways..after all it wasn't totally ruined, it just looked really worn out. So I got the bright idea (thanks to Pinterest!) to refinish our old furniture and make it new! I always wanted some bedroom furniture that was distressed and was mismatched and a little eclectic looking so why not just go for it?! 

My inspiration for the colors I chose came from the new bedspread my hubby bought me for Christmas. I absolutely love all the colors in it! 

We really neede to keep the budget low, so when we went looking for paint we found a DISCOUNTED section of paint at Home Depot and we got 3 cans of paint that would've been $100 (our entire budget) for only $17!! It was a huge steal! So next time you are doing a project make sure to check for discounted paint. 

We borrowed a sander so we saved there, so try to borrow someone's if possible. Your parents, your friends, your neighbors, someone you know is bound to have one. 

So step 1- we sanded everything down 

Step 2- paint with your base coat. I chose to paint the headboard with a light gray initially so that when I distressed it later on, some of the gray would show through the blue that I did. 

This first coat doesn't have to be perfect or opaque because you're going to go over it with other coats. 

Step 3-paint your primary color (the color you want to show most) again this doesn't have to be perfect either.

Step 4- take a brown paint and water it down a little, I'd say 1 part water and 3 parts paint. For this step, I used a very cheap old brush, like you would find at the dollar store. Here you want to barely dip the end in the paint and lightly stroke the brush across the furniture to create a wood grain affect.  

Step 5- OPTIONAL repeat step 4 using a white or cream paint, watering it down a little more to give the piece a whitewashed affect. 

Step 6-lightly resand over entire surface. Hitting edges and corners a little bit more. Also, any other areas that you want to look more aged (this is all a personal preference and don't worry if you make a mistake you can always touch up with paint).  

The places that are whiter, are places that I retouched after sanding. 

Step 7- Last step!! Put a coat of polyurethane/stain over entire surface. It's hard to describe what this does, but it makes a huge difference. 

Left side is without and right side is with so you can see the difference it makes. 

After it has dried for about 8 hours, it's all done!! 

Here are a few pictures of my finished bedroom set, I really love the way it all turned out. 

That's it! If you have any questions or get confused with any steps just leave a comment below. 

Thanks for reading! 

Codi