How To Unicorn

Fun and practical tips for living your most magical life

How to Make Magical Looking Galaxy Furniture

How to Make Magical Looking Galaxy Furniture

I’m so excited to share my first galaxy furniture tutorial with you! If you enjoy these nightstands, be sure to check out my galaxy dresser tutorial!

One upside to this pandemic is that I’m finally finding the time to work on various projects around the house. One of these projects is to update our furniture. We have some great furniture, but the colors didn’t really fit our magical aesthetic.

Given how much time we’ve been spending at home lately, I want our home to be really comfortable. I want to create a space where I feel calm and relaxed.

For our bedroom, I am going for a celestial / space theme. Something about looking up at the night sky is just so magical to me, and I wanted our furniture to reflect that somehow. Once I’ve finished updating all our furniture, I will have to take some more pictures!

We had two of these nightstands – which were functional working pieces- but definitely didn’t fit with that theme.

These were gifted to us by our friends in SoCal – thank you Carl and Karine!

Here’s what they look like after their makeover!

Galaxy end tables!

Supplies:

  • Power sander + sandpaper in various grits (course and fine)
  • Goggles and mask (to filter out all the dust from sanding)
  • Black chalk paint
  • Paintbrushes and foam brushes
  • Unicorn Spit Gel Stain (Blue Thunder, Purple Hill Majestic, Pixie Punk Pink)
  • White acrylic paint
  • Rust-Oleum High Gloss Top Coat
This was my first time working with Unicorn Spit. These are water-based concentrated gel stains that come in multiple colors and you can use them on a variety of surfaces. You can use them straight out of the bottle or dilute them with water. They’re pretty versatile! After you seal them with an oil-based sealer, the colors really pop.

The Process:

I didn’t sand down to the bare wood since I was going to paint these black. I just sanded the original finish.

After sanding, I wiped down the nightstands with a damp rug to remove all the dust. Then I painted them with some black chalk paint. Not going to lie – I almost called it a day because I liked how these came out!

One you have your black base, you can start painting some galaxies! I used the foam brushes to sponge on the different Unicorn Spit colors and did my best to mix them together to create cloud-like shapes. I would also occasionally sponge on some of the black chalk paint and then add more color to try and add some depth.

For the stars, I added some white acrylic paint to a small paint brush and flicked it with my fingers.

I kept repeating this entire process until I was happy with the result. The great thing about Unicorn Spit is if you don’t like something, you can spray water on it and wipe it off or just paint over it.

Since no two galaxies are alike, I painted each nightstand a little differently.

Once I was happy with the result, I sealed the top with some Rust-Oleum High Gloss Top Coat. I did 3-4 coats and noticed that after sealing, the colors looked much more vibrant. This completed the galaxy look.

Note: If you use Unicorn Spit, make sure you seal it with an oil-based sealer. Because Unicorn Spit is water-based, if you use a water-based sealer, it will undo all your hard work!

This was a pretty fun project. Now whenever I look at a piece of furniture, I’m thinking of all the different ways I could give it a new look. It’s amazing how you can transform your furniture with a coat of new paint.

Meri