I have been watching too much HGTV and stalking the blog Young House Love for far too long. It is time to crack open the DIY can o' worms! I don't exactly own a home or a condo yet, so my projects are limited to just decorating, but I am re-doing my apartment to be a little bit more "grown up" and slowly replace old college furniture with new. So the first thing I decided to work on was my coffee table.
Here it is, isn't she a beaut!
Don't hold your breath...
This is an old wooden table from college that was found on a street corner. Ha. One Frat's trash became this girl's treasure. The first time I tried to make the table over, I took some Martha Stewart gold textured paint and painted over the wood in a horribly failed attempt to "make it work". Fail. Huge Fail. It was fuglier than the time my Calculus teacher in High School pooped her pants during class.
True story.
So what next? I looked thru countless magazines and pinterest pictures and decided on a look. This look to be exact.
Simple enough, right? Just sand the table, paint the bottom part with some paint and stain the top wood and gloss it. I had it all planned out, and I knew it would look amazing. Until I started to sand the table..
(oh yeah, sanding away... sorry about the dead plants.. I did eventually clean up my balcony mom, I promise!)
And I realized that my cheap street find wasn't entirely made out of wood. It was wood for the most part, except the top, the top is made of this formica made to look like wood, but not wood. Great. There goes this entire idea. I got bamboozled.
So after some more brainstorming I thought, hmm, maybe I should paint this table a solid color that is fun and pops but matches what I currently own. Ala Jonathan Adler. And that quickly went out the window too. I am a commitment phobe, especially for my first furniture DIY project.
So finally, I settled on an idea. I will try to recreate the look from the pinterest photo. Try being the key word. I painted the frame white and decided to paint the surface a vintage gold. This way, the table would fit in with most decor options I already have running thru my head (well, various pinterest boards) and with my existing decor as well. As Charlie Sheen would say, Winning!
(winter is back, couldn't finish the table and it sat in my living room looking like this for a few weeks)
It turned out pretty nice! I got the supplies at Home Depot. I bought $4 sample sized paint pots, some brushes, painter's tape, breathing masks and a sander. Yes I bought a sander. My very first power tool yeeeaaa!! I read the instructions and got completely freaked out. So it took me about a week to get the courage to actually use my new sander. And then I felt pretty dumb for being so scared of electrocution or something. I figured the sander will come in handy as I re-do other pieces of furniture, which is why I invested in it. Plus, I tried sanding this table by hand, and it would've taken me months to do. Seriously.
(in between coats of paint)
So a quick run down of what I did:
- Took my table out on to my balcony. Put on a breathing mask (in case the paint on the table was lead base) and started to sand away
- After I stripped the table of the textured paint I wiped it down with a moist cloth to ensure I got all the sand dust off.
- Once dry, I used painter's tape to tape the edges of the surface so they would not get painted while I primed the frame.
- Primed the frame of the table and let it sit outside overnight so that it would dry completely.
- Spray painted the frame with a white lacquer. Let it dry overnight.
- Taped the edge of the frame and painted the surface of the table with Martha Stewart's Vintage Gold metallic paint. Let it dry.
- Coated the entire table with a protecting clear coat to prevent stains. Let it dry.
One last word of advice: invest in a good paint brush. I can't tell you how many fiber hairs from my brush I had to pick off the painted table. So annoying!
(more painting..)
Isn't she pretty?
Home Depot is now my favorite store. Can I register there for my birthday? This crazy weather has put a damper on the finishing touches for my table (lots of days went by waiting for the weather to warm up enough for paint to dry), but I am hoping today's Spring weather will help the last coat of gold paint dry so I can post a good final picture and bring the table inside. If you have any tips for painting furniture or if you want to share your DIY project feel free to leave a comment! I love snooping on other people's craftiness!
**Update: Here's is the table finally in my living room! (the rest of the room needs some work, but I have many projects in mind to pull the whole look together).
xoxo
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