No matchy-matchy here

I'm not a big fan of matchy-matchy bedroom sets. I like furniture pieces to look good together and to complement each other, but I don't believe that you have to buy all of your furniture together for it to look good. In fact, I prefer buying pieces separately. It gives a room a more unique look instead of looking mass-produced.

We bought our nightstands when we first got married and I like them okay. I just don't love the color of the wood. I don't think painting them white would look good either since they have black exposed bolts and hardware. I could sand and re-stain them, but I am hung up because our bed and dressers are white...so would wood colored nightstands look alright???

So I started browsing around the internet looking at bedrooms and I noticed that a lot of bedrooms that I like, have nightstands that aren't the same color as the headboard. In fact, I like it better when they aren't the exact same color. It makes the rooms look interesting...

Photo courtesy of Country Living

Photos courtesy of Pottery Barn

Photos courtesy of Coastal Living

So after seeing all of these beautiful bedrooms, I was convinced that it was okay to re-stain our nightstands and not have them be white like the rest of our furniture.

Here is a what our nightstands looked like before.
I did no tidying up for the picture; this is what it looks like on a typical day.
(Mental note: invest in some storage for all of those well-loved books and magazines!)And here's the after.
I sanded and then stained (3 coats of Minwax Polyshades in Antique Walnut Satin - same color stain I used on the curtain rod).(It looks more reddish in the pictures that it actually is)

I loved how it looked when I was in the garage.
Then I got it upstairs...and I have to say that I'm just not feelin' it.

I don't know what it is though...
Is it too dark?
Is it the brushed nickel lamp base that makes it look weird?
Is it too polished looking - does it need to look more rustic?
Do we have too many different finishes going on?

Here is a picture with both nightstands -
the one I re-stained and the one I haven't touched yet.
What do you think? Advice, anyone???