seeing red.

Are there ever mornings that you wake up and you suddenly have to do some project that's been bugging you for ages? Ya, it doesn't happen to me very often either but this weekend I sprung out of bed and absolutely had to do something about my gross old bedside table. I don't know if it was the beautiful Anthropologie knobs Nick gave me for my birthday or that we were having real grown ups over for dinner on Sunday (family friends) but I had to do something. The original bedside table was a hand me down from my boss. It has two large drawers which I love for storage but the old Ikea plastic finish was peeling. (See below.)

I was perusing some blogs and came across a colour combination that I've been dying to try. Like, for years. I've long loved the combination of red and turquoise so I decided to paint my bedside table red to contrast the turquoise of our bedroom. Call me crazy but I'm not afraid of colour!

First things first, I had to go off to the paint store to figure out how to paint over plastic. Turns out it was some gross spray primer.

After the primer, the table already looked better! After letting it dry for an hour or two I started apply coats of red paint. I got the red paint for $5 because it was a mistint at the paint shop. (Actually it was 2 for $10 so we got a bucket of bright white just in case I wake up another morning and suddenly must paint the kitchen cupboards. Not that they need it or anything .... It'll also be helpful when we have to paint over our yellow bathroom when we move. Seriously, who doesn't want a yellow bathroom?!) It took three or four coats (frankly, I forget how many) that I let dry for an hour in between. After the fourth coat I left it to dry over night. In the morning the colour hadn't changed much and I was really happy with it. In the morning, I put on the new knobs that Nick got me to finish it off.

Overall I love the colour! I think it's a great contrast to the turquoise walls. It's bold and totally eclectic with the bird knobs. You can't even tell that it was an old Ikea hand me down! What do you think? Crazy or awesome?

Now, I need your votes. Do I repaint Nick's bedside table too to tie it all together? We have a lot of redish-pink art in our bedroom so I think it'll work. I also think that painting his bedside table will make them match even though they are completely different tables. Thoughts? (Keep in mind that usually our duvet cover is a chocolate brown, not this beige number.)