Coffee Table Makeover

So I've been super interested in the furniture makeovers I've been reading about lately in blogland.  I've been looking at them for awhile.  I LOVE reading them and seeing the before and afters.  I marvel at how beautiful these pieces look after some work and love when they start out looking so plain and/or ugly.  I've been dying to do it myself and finally had the courage to do it!   

To start I emailed one of my bloggy bffs, Amy, to ask her for some tips.  She did this amazing dresser makeover that I {still} drool over and other painting projects, so she knows her stuff!  Anyways, so after her tips, I began.  I wanted to paint these end tables that are in my living room. 

I don't  have a before... I'm so bad at that!  {I just get so excited to dive in.}  But look at the color on the bottom side of the table in the 2nd picture.  That's what the tables looked like.  Not bad, but plain and boring wood color.  We have wood floors, wood coffee table, and these {fake} wood end tables.  We can't paint the walls 'cause we're renting, but I can paint our furniture!  And boy am I gonna.  I have big plans for pretty much every piece of furniture we own, haha.

So I cleaned them off, {forgot to sand, whoops}, and gave them a couple coats of white {mistake #1} spray primer.  Sanding isn't completely necessary if you prime, but it helps. 

Then I began painting.  I chose what I thought was nice red color. Yeah. Thought. 

It turned out more of a pinkish, watermelon-like color.  Not the red I wanted.  See that corner of the table in the picture above where it's darker?  That's where I tried another layer to see if it looked any better.  Nope. 

Now what?  I was frustrated.  Then in the back of my mind I somehow had the thought that maybe I was supposed to use a different color primer if you paint with red.  Turns out that's correct.  I read about it online and asked a few people and my SIL Jennilyn told me they had to use red-tinted primer when they painted their walls red.  So off to Lowe's I went and asked the paint guy for some red-tinted primer.  He looked at me funny like it was odd request.  So I explained what had happened and he told me to used gray primer if I was painting with red.  So I got some and began to prime.  But this time, I decided I wanted to paint my coffee table, not the end tables.  I put the tables aside to re-prime later and began on this coffee table. 

I actually remembered to sand this time, woo-hoo!  And got my hubby to help, double woo-hoo!

Then we began to prime.

Here's the table all primed and ready.  And yes, the top lifts up, which we love!  It's super handy if we want eat there and watch tv at the same time.  Which we actually don't do much anymore since we moved the tv, but I still love that coffee table.  Plus the top lifting off was great for painting it.  Winning! {Charlie Sheen interview anyone?  I actually saw the SNL version first, too funny}

The first coat of paint.  Still looking pinkish to me...

Unfortunately, I have bad remembering-to-take-pictures skills, and don't have any of the table with more layers.  But basically, it still looked too pink for me after about 4-5 coats.  {mistake #2- wrong color of paint} So again, super frustrated.  I wasn't going to give up though!  This was my first ever furniture painting experience.  I was making lots of mistakes, but I was learning.  So I kept going.  I didn't want to give up.  I went back to Lowe's and got some Classic Red paint by Valspar in semigloss.  I figured Classic Red was a good choice to make sure this table looked RED this time!

So I painted right on top of the pinkish red {the Lowe's guy said that was fine} and this time I loved the color.  It was perfect.  I was so glad I didn't settle for the pink/red, like I was debating.  This was what I wanted. 

I wanted to glaze the table as well.  I love the way glazing looks on the furniture makeovers I've seen.  I did it {mistake #3} and didn't love it.  So I painted over it.  The glazing still showed through a little bit.  But I liked it then.  It wasn't so dark.  I think maybe this coffee table wasn't a good candidate for it.  I'm not giving up on glazing yet. 

Last step, was a finishing coat.  After all that work I wanted my table to withstand time and kids and moves.  I had some spray paint clear top coat stuff.  Mistake #524 {or so it felt}.  It looked uneven and just not very nice.  Now how I wanted my table to look.  So I went to a pro.  The talented gal of Maple and Magnolia {who does lots and lots of furniture makeovers} recommended this to me and it was super easy to use.  Which was nice after the long process of priming, painting, glazing, and painting.  You literally just wipe it on.  It only took a few mintues to cover the whole thing.  Then I let it dry and did a second coat.

Now it is done!

It took 2 weeks from start to finish.

And it felt like FOREVER.

I do feel that I learned a lot.  And the next time it won't take me nearly so long {knock on wood}.  I still need to finish those end tables!

A final before and after.

I love it!

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