When one woman spotted a pair of boring bedside tables for €30 (around £25) on Facebook Marketplace, she was struck by an incredible idea to transform them into bespoke, vintage numbers.
Hema Kasi-Patel, from Porto, has a self-admitted 'weakness for vintage furniture' - but told Ideal Home that 'not all have that ‘classic’ look' so she often has to brainstorm upcycled furniture ideas to achieve the look herself.
When the 50-year-old saw the bedside tables on Facebook Marketplace she told us that the shape was the best thing going' for them. 'I didn’t want to deter from the elegant outline,' she added. 'I knew what I was going to do, as soon as I saw them.'
Vintage bedside table makeover
Before
'After a good clean, I filled in the areas where the veneer had come away,' she said. Then, Hema sanded the tables, and painted them with Frenchic’s Loof black chalk paint, one of the best paints for furniture out there.
Next, Hema applied clear wax to the legs and applied Polyvine’s Dead Flat as a protective topcoat. She then added new handles to the drawers.
'I wanted simplicity, elegance and for your eyes to be drawn to those legs,' she added.
'In total this project cost me less than £30,” she revealed. Hema told us that the handles were €2.25 from Amazon - and she already had the paint, wax and topcoat from previous upcycling missions.
Hema continued the minimalist, on-trend, vintage look by arranging an array of monochrome accessories on top of her newly-upcycled bedside tables - including beautifully framed drawings and artwork.
Coupled with that, Hema added leafy green plants - also in black and white vases - to really complete the look.
Hema began documenting her upcycling projects on Instagram last year, under the name Alma Nova Porto.
'I always try to re-use, [and] recycle, so Alma Nova Porto has allowed me to follow my heart and beliefs,' she said. 'My pieces are unique, [and] only produced once.'
We would wake up on the right side of the bed every morning if we had these unique, vintage numbers as our bedside tables.
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