Classic Painted Coffee Table Makeover

When you come from a large family, hand me downs are just an expected part of daily life.

At least they were when I was growing up.

However, while most of my friends considered this practice kind of a bummer, I had a decidedly different perspective.


I thought it was great.

Of course, I wasn't getting a pair of worn jeans or last season's shoes.

Nope.

You see my siblings were a lot older than me. In fact, my oldest sister graduated high school the year before I went to kindergarten.

So by the time I was ready for any of their hand me downs, I was a teenager and they were in their 20s.

They gave me dangly earrings, nail polish in deep reds and shoes with heels, before my mom was willing to buy them for me. Grown up clothes and accessories that made me feel very cool.

And the older I got, the better the stuff got. 

The best things started coming my way when I got married. That's when the furniture and decor accessories replaced fashion and it was fabulous.


Some of the pieces came directly to me. Others, like this oval table, made their way around to everyone else's houses before I got my hands on it.

At first, when it was offered, I declined. Thanks but no thanks, I have enough tables.

As evidenced by all the tables I've made over in the past:

• Red Round Painted Table Makeover
• Kitchen Table To Charming Farmhouse Island
• Refinishing A Wooden Tabletop
• How To Skirt A Table
  
• Trash To Treasure Beadboard Table

But the longer the offer was out there, the more I thought it might look cute in the family room.

So I took it. 

And there it sat with its dark green, chipped paint for months. I just couldn't figure out what to do with it.

Then a few weeks ago, my husband and I went to small shop and found Dixie Belle's English Ivy and I thought it might be a winner.

That's when the work began.

From the start I knew I wanted a stained top and painted legs. That meant two finishes on one piece.

Lucky for me, the top of this table was screwed on. That meant I was able to remove it and hand it off to my husband who took care of the dirty work outside.

In the cold.


And the snow. Lots of snow.

We don't love chemicals around here and thankfully none were necessary to strip away the heavy layers of paint and old stain.

Sanding that tabletop with a 5" orbital sander, and manually hand sanding the edges, removed every drop of color.


Once he brought it down to bare wood, he used his air compressor to blow away any dust and debris left behind.

That was all the prep the wood needed before stain.


He applied the stain, with a rag, coat after coat, until we were happy with the color...which was actually a combination of a few colors we had leftover from other projects.

Meanwhile, as the stain was drying in garage, I was painting. In the warm house.

I love chalk mineral paint. So easy to use. There's no prepping or priming involved. At least not the way I do it. I just dust my piece off and paint.

I used a brush to apply 2 coats of that dreamy green. I let each coat dry completely in between and then set the table aside for a few days to set. 

It takes 20-30 days for chalk mineral paint to fully cure, but after about a week, I felt good about sealing it. Plus, we had a window of warm weather we wanted to use to our advantage.

So when the temperature rose for that one glorious day, my husband gave the table top and the legs a coat of shellac.


It looked great on both pieces, but shellac is water resistant. It's not truly waterproof.

It was a fabulous fix to remove the smell from the old wooden headboard I found on Facebook. However, that will never be exposed to water, so it wasn't an issue.

And the painted legs are properly protected. But that tabletop...eh...I don't trust it for the long haul.

Normally, we'd use a strong polyurethane to protect against water damage, like we did when we built our wooden countertop. That sucker is indestructible.

However, it's way, way too cold here at the moment for that. It won't cure. Shellac was a quick drying, simple way to give the top a temporary satin shine and bit of protection, until we can use the poly in the spring.

Like my friend Ann says...that's real life folks.

Until then, you can bet we'll be using my DIY monogrammed coasters, so I don't have to get my iron out to remove water rings from the wood.

Phew...ok that's definitely one of those, it's taken me longer to talk about it, than it did to do it DIYs. I promise it really was a relatively quick project, minus all the drying time.

At the moment, that gorgeous hand me down is sitting in the family room, cozying it up with its new look.

It honestly doesn't even look like the same table.

I think the wood/ paint combination was the perfect finish. It's a classic.

And the size and shape are a nice change from the chunky, square coffee table that lived in there for decades. I'm finally getting this room looking the way I'd hoped it would years after its initial renovation.

Of course the rug isn't ideal, but I guess it's just more of that real life I mentioned earlier.

I swapped the living room and family rugs back in October.


So, it doesn't really belong. Or match...unfortunately, I just haven't found one yet that does. And trust me, I've tried.

But like I said, January's been brutal and I'd rather have a mismatched rug than cold toes.

So this one will have to do for now.

Well, unless a hand me down comes my way.

😉

Tell me your hand me down tales...

Happy DIYing, Friends!