We had a spare bedroom that housed our treadmill and a pull-out couch, but we wanted to convert it to a nice 2nd guest room. A friend of ours made a headboard and we said we could do that. Furniture is so expensive so we tackled the headboard, painted an old dresser & mirror, and we’re almost done building a custom night stand. We have a complete bedroom set for under $190 including the primer, paint, wood, foam rollers, & hardware (less the actual bed, mattress, pillows, mattress pad, bed frame, which was only $550).
So here’s what we started with. Three old oak doors at $4 each and really inexpensive decorative molding from Habitat for Humanity. We used 4x4’s for the pillars, MDF to frame in the oak doors, and other misc wood from our scrap bin.
Our detailed and well thought out plans (Hank is the master mind behind this).
The most expensive thing for this bedroom set was the primer and paint. We bought Zinsser primer that covers and seals really good. I had done a lot of research to find out how I could apply a primer to cover oak wood and knot holes without sanding and doing a bunch of prep work, and Zinsser does the job. Applying 2 coats of primer and 2 coats of paint was a lot of work, but it turned out good. 
This old oak mirror was my Dad’s. I took it apart, primed and painted it and put it back together which is now over the dresser.
I bought a complete oak bedroom set when I was in high school, so this dresser is about 44 years old. That was our bedroom set up until last year, then we sold everything on Craig’s List EXCEPT this dresser. For some reason we just could not sell it so it’s been sitting in our garage. Now I know there must have been a reason that we weren’t able to sell it. I told Hank let’s just paint it instead of buying a new or used dresser… let’s use what we have and that’s what we did. Here’s the oak dresser and mirror before painting.
Here’s the dresser after painting with new handles.
Priming
Room before…
Room after…
I bought some inexpensive sheer curtains at Big Lots that matched the color scheme perfectly. I hemmed them and used a decorative curtain rod that I already had that was just taking up space in my closet. I love the room, I’m excited to paint the nightstand, and to hang something on the wall over the bed to complete the room.
The nightstand will be placed on the right side of the bed once we’re done with it.
