These French Provincial Nightstands Got Their Aged Blue Finish From Three Layers of Paint
A pair of 1950s French Provincial nightstands already had curved legs, shaped tops, ornate hardware, and metal wire inserts across the cabinet doors. Cindy from Edith & Evelyn found them at an estate sale and kept them in storage before deciding to change the brown wood finish while preserving the details that defined the pair.
Instead of covering the nightstands with one solid color, she built the finish with three paint treatments, then used glaze, wax, and gold accents across the raised details. Decorative appliqués added to the fronts gave the paint and gilding another surface to pick up.
Brown Wood Covered the Pair From Top to Bottom
Both nightstands began with a brown wood finish across the tops, drawers, doors, legs, and frames. Each piece had one drawer above a two-door cabinet, with curved openings backed by diamond-pattern metal wire.
Ornate drawer pulls and small door knobs were already in place, so the makeover did not depend on replacing the original hardware or changing the cabinet structure.
Appliqués Added Detail Before the Paint Went On
Cindy added decorative appliqués to the vertical sections beside the drawers and doors before painting. The raised designs gave the front corners more detail and created new edges and recesses for the layered finish.
She has also shared a tutorial for making furniture appliqués with casting resin and molds. Equal parts of the two-part resin are mixed and poured into molds, then removed before the resin becomes rigid. At that stage, the pieces remain flexible enough to follow curved furniture surfaces before being attached with glue.
Three Paint Treatments Built the Aged Blue Finish
Country Blue formed the base coat before Cindy added Evening Shadow as a wash. She thinned the second color with water, worked across one section at a time, and wiped it back with a soft cloth so darker pigment remained in grooves and recessed areas.
Sea Salt went on as the final paint layer with a dry-brush technique. Instead of covering the darker blue, the pale color caught raised sections and edges while leaving the previous layers visible beneath it.
Glaze Darkened the Edges After the Paint Layers
A homemade glaze went over the layered paint once the three colors were in place. Cindy applied it in sections and wiped it back, leaving more pigment around edges, grooves, and raised details.
The treatment created several tones across the shaped top rather than one flat blue surface. After the glaze dried, Cindy added clear wax, allowed it to cure for 24 hours, and buffed the finish.
Gold Gilding Picked Out the Original and Added Details
Gold went onto both the details that came with the nightstands and those added during the makeover. Cindy used Rub ‘n Buff in Gold Leaf on the original hardware, appliqués, and metal wire across the cabinet doors.
The gilding separates those small details from the muted blue background. Drawer pulls, door knobs, wire inserts, and raised appliqués now repeat the same metal finish across each front.
Distressing Left Parts of the Original Wood Visible
Some of the worn effect developed while Cindy wiped back the Evening Shadow wash. The cloth pulled paint away in places, allowing small sections of the original brown wood to appear through the blue layers.
Those breaks continue around edges, legs, and the scalloped base. Dark wash, pale dry brushing, glaze, and exposed wood prevent the larger painted sections from reading as a single uniform color.
Brown Nightstands Became Layered Blue and Gold Pieces
The finished pair keeps the same drawers, cabinet doors, curved legs, shaped tops, wire panels, and original hardware found on the estate sale pieces. Added appliqués extend the ornament across the fronts without changing the original furniture layout.
Country Blue, Evening Shadow, and Sea Salt remain visible as separate parts of the finish, while glaze settles into the details and gold marks the hardware, wire, and appliqués.
Would you choose this layered blue finish or keep the original brown wood?
All image credits: Cindy, Edith & Evelyn.