Furniture Makeover…Getting my happy back!

Life is crazy when you have two busy kiddos. The older they get, the busier they get and in turn my life has become very similar to that of a full time Uber driver. Oh, except also throw in my part time job, running my photography business, keeping up with all of the household chores and what do you get?…A tired, cranky, burnt out momma! I am a creative. I am one of those people that just has a need to create things. It started at a young age when I would pull out a blank piece of paper and just stare at it, wanting to create something, but not sure what. Eventually I found photography and several other outlets for my desire to “create” through the years including scrapbooking, crafting, decorating, cooking, and blogging . Not having the time lately to do the creative things I enjoy has left a hole though and I vowed that this summer I was going to change that. Time to try new things that I have always wanted to do or learn, but instead just thought about because I didn’t have the time. Being a good mom and wife isn’t just about getting everything done and getting everyone where they need to go. It’s also about (and more importantly about) being happy and fulfilled, being present, showing your children all of the things you can do if you just try so they will be inspired to try too!
Sooo that brings me to my latest adventure, refinishing furniture! I’ve always been interested in trying this and taking a piece that was outdated or has seen better days and turning it into something new. We just recently finished our basement and were needing some end tables. We splurged on a beautiful leather couch and chair but wanted to see if we could find more thrifty options for the other furniture we needed. That need plus seeing some beautiful pieces a friend refinished inspired me to give it a try so I started scouting the swap and garage sale pages and eventually found these two “lovely” 1990’s golden oak, scratched, ring marked end tables for $15.

Not much to look at, but they did have a lot of qualities that made me see potential in them. First of all they are solid wood and heavy duty! There weren’t a whole lot of grooves or intricate details to work around or that would make it hard to bring them into this century. I also loved the “herringbone” type pattern on the top and thought it would be fun to bring that out more with stain. When I arrived to meet with the seller I was a little surprised how big these things were but for $15 I figured they would at the very least be a good experimental project and if they didn’t work in our space I could re-sell them, so I loaded them up and got to work. First I cleaned them thoroughly with some wood/cabinet cleaner.
I chose this particular one by process of “eenie meenie” (because lets face it, I don’t really know what I’m doing at this point). Wow! I got lucky though. Not only did this stuff clean the pieces I bought great, but I was so happy with it I then went and used it on my dining table and it really took care of the grit, grime and grease from my darling little angels. Not only that but it smells delicious…kind of like Ameretto! But enough about that. Next I started sanding. I considered using some type of electric sander (palm, belt, rotary?) but the cheap and inexperienced side of me wasn’t sure if we already had one at home when I was at Home Depot gathering supplies, ….or which would work best, ….or if I would totally screw up the furniture with one of these so the side of me that likes to pretend I know what I’m doing decided hand sanding would be best to be able to go with the grain of the herringbone pattern more easily so I went this route:
So I should probably now mention that it was in the upper 90’s on the day I chose to take on this project and around 185% humidity and I’m in the garage with no breeze so the next product I turned to was this one:
Ahhh, that’s better. Ok, next was the stain. I used Varathane woodstain in Dark Walnut. Remember, I don’t really know what I’m doing so my decision to use this was because I planned on buying Minwax brand because that seems to be all the rage in the “furniture makeover” scene, but they were out of Dark Walnut which I specifially wanted because we are getting barn doors in the same space that will be that color. So I moved on to the first brand I found in that color and the can promised all kinds of amazing things like “satisfaction guaranteed”, Dries 3X faster, Acheive color in ONE coat! They seemed pretty excited about their product so worked for me. I used a sponge brush and applied the stain and waited about 3 or 4 minutes before wiping it off with one of my son’s old t shirts.
Next was the paint. I wanted a contrast between the wood top (which was now a lovely dark walnut…in ONE coat) and the bottom to seperate and give the piece a more updated look. I literally just grabbed a sample I liked and handed it over to the friendly Home Depot Paint Mixer Person along with a quart of Behr Premium Plus with Primer in Interior Eggshell. I initially also had Primer in my cart but when I came across this 2 in 1 option, I figured why not eliminate the extra step. So I wandered around while I waited for my paint to get mixed and then glanced at the sample again and realized the color I chose was called “Berry Brown”. Interesting because I thought I chose grey. Now I was a little worried but decided that since our couch was grey but there were lots of browns incorporated in the woods and carpet in our basement, maybe it would be ok. So I was kind of holding my breath as I started painting the bottoms of the tables, but was pretty pleased with the greyish/brownish color that it turned out to be.
Next I needed something to protect them from the drinks and who knows what else the rugrats and hubby would set on them so I after some googling I chose this spray on polycrylic.
Since I knew by the time I got to this step my project would be cosmetically complete and I didn’t want to take a chance of screwing it up on the last step, spraying seemed like the simplest and easiest route. Not really. After the stain and paint dried, I followed the directions which said to shake it vigorously for 2-3 minutes and then again after every minute of use (that’s a lot of shaking folks) but instead of a constant mist I was getting a lot of bubbly splatters. I kept having to lightly dab them off of the furniture so they didn’t leave uneven circles all over the tables. I used 4 coats (waiting for each coat to dry for 30 minutes in between). The directions also said to sand with a fine sandpaper in between coats, but the thought of sanding my now finished product that looked exactly how I wanted it to, gave me anxiety so I said “no thank you” and broke that rule. Maybe that was to get rid of the stupid bubbles that were splattering out of the can? Anyway, the finish didn’t really look or feel drastically different after 4 coats, but it seems to have worked as my family has tested it out already as only they can. Here is the end result with my $3 garage sale lamp and $1 set of garage sale coasters sitting atop one of my $7.50 (each) tables. 🙂
Now I’m itching to tackle another project!