5.10.2011

I Call A Do Over: Living Room Coffee Table Edition

My 4 AM usually consists of DVR or Netflix, food sitting somewhere on the floor or couch, my drill, dremel, and paint.

Since Mr. Superman deployed, I got more into DIY decor and refinishing furniture. Nikki, my BFF Forever is seriously an incredible designer so she helped me a ton in teaching me techniques and easier ways to do things. 

Now that I have a collection of stuff I've done and on my To Do List I figured why not share it with my Lovelies? So most Tuesdays for me are going to consist of this new meme. Without further ado, we dive in!


Today's treasure came to me via Goodwill. Ahhh, Goodwill. Land of beautiful decor with unimagined potential. At least until DIY'ers like me come along. 

I found this solid, in great shape, and perfectly proportioned coffee table at one of Arizona's many Goodwill's. I had seen it at a furniture store for $95 and I got it for $10. Yep, TEN DOLLARS! Woo! I started out by painting it what I thought would be an awesome shade of yellow. It instead looked like a canary puked all over it. Gag me. 

I ended up taking it to Nikki's house and she gave me some slightly off-white paint to slap on it. Yep, I slapped this sucker good! It took longer than it should have because I was a slacker but I digress. After painting over the dead canary, it dried then I went to town sanding it after which came the staining. This was my very first piece of furniture that I was using stain. Yes, I got my stain cherry popped while hovering over my coffee table which was sitting on Nikki's kitchen table. It was a threesome witnessed by her and her four children. Nice. After the staining it got a coat of clear acrylic. The next day we took a look and for some reason the clear acrylic came out kind of milky and left a foggy film all over the table so I sanded again, added more stain and loved it even more. I mentioned I wanted to find an antique door knob for the drawer pull and 2 minutes later Nikki had plopped one in front of me.

After getting it settled at home here in Georgia, its gotten a few more touch ups with stain and finally a ton of clear acrylic spray paint to protect the top from liquid and everything else that gets stacked on it. 

I rescued the table from an unknown fate. Okay, okay, I paid for her like a street corner harlot and I breathed new life into her. I gave her lots of attention and rub downs which included a threesome. I then moved her across the country and now she's sitting pretty in a cushy life in front of the 50" plasma. I'm not equating myself to Richard Gere in Pretty Woman but... if the shoe fits.

 

I always swore I would never say this but seriously? LURVE.

10 comments:

Mama Steele said...

And you should mention that on our wild and crazy trip across country in February, this got packed in the car first and everything else was carefully packed around it! You did a fabulous job on it by the way! I'm inspired...

Dr. Army Wife said...

Looks fabulous! You make want to go to Goodwill and find something to fix...but I'm afraid it would probably never be finished.

Anonymous said...

That is super pretty! And $10? What a great deal!

erika said...

Cuteness!

ginger said...

gorgeous!! love it!
xxoo

Sasha said...

love that!! so cute!!

Nicole Marie said...

Great job!!

beka said...

ohmyword, it looks great!!!
i need to get a bit of ....um...er... the opposite of procrastination....and get on my own huge DIY project. i started it last september. Lord help me.

Anonymous said...

This looks so amazing!!! I had no idea that two coats of paint and some sandpaper is all it takes to get that wonderful distressed look.

From now on, I'm going to send you pictures of all of my furniture and you can tell me what to do to make it beautiful!! LOL! :)

I can't wait until I have worked my way up to "handy domestic goddess", like you. :)

Unknown said...

That is awesome! I never think to reinvent furniture items...or any items for that matter. Hopefully I'll start being more creative in that aspect.