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OPP (Other People’s Projects): Dania’s Side Table

By Dawn Sailors In Other People's Projects, Pimp my Furniture

If you read my recent post on our inexpensive DIY kitchen counters, then you probably got the not so subtle hint that there was a lot of waiting around for paint to dry during that process. Luckily I had my sister, Dania, over here to help out with that project, because it is definitely a two person job (and Brett was entertaining the baby far away from the fumes). Dania’s a smart woman though, and doesn’t work for free. She brought over her own little project for me to help her out with, and it turned out to be just the thing to entertain us in between coats of counter paint.

She had been looking for a small side table to fill an awkward spot at the end of a hallway in her father-in-law’s lake house and came across this little guy at goodwill for $6.

It doesn’t look like much, and her husband was definitely skeptical, but they took it home anyway hoping she and I could work some magic. After all, they don’t use the lake house (slash cabin) that much and she’s just trying to make it feel a little less bare when they do visit there. Plus the table was six dollars, so really she practically had to buy it.

So she brought it over and we got to work sanding that baby down. Once it was roughed up a little, it was on to three thin coats of white spray paint (in satin finish).

The next step was roughing it back up a little. See, we weren’t crazy about the hearts, but we decided that since they were there already and replacing the front panel completely would take more time/money than we wanted to spend on this project, we embraced the hearts and the country vibe they give off. (We didn’t want the piece to look like we tried to make something old look new.) It is a lake house (slash cabin) after all. Instead we wanted to give it a rustic country feel, so those little hearts would seem right at home.

To do that, we just broke out the sand paper again and roughed up the paint. The key is to not just go crazy sanding down the whole shebang all willy-nilly. Instead, if you strategically sand down the places that would actually get worn down if this piece were 20 or 30 years old, you’ll get a much more natural and realistic look. So we stuck to the corners and edges instead of the flat places like the front or top (although a little roughing up there just to blend it together helps too).

After our sanding job, we finished her off with a quick coat of Polyacrilic and Dania added a new knob she picked up for a dollar at Lowes. Project complete. And the total cost was just over $10, including the table, paint, and knob (I already had the sand paper and Polyacrilic on hand).

Here is the refreshed table, looking pretty sharp. I’d say it will fit right in at the cabin and this was a great investment!

And a quick before and after, just so you don’t have to scroll back to the top.

Not too shabby, right? Especially for a quick and inexpensive project.

Anyone else have any quick furniture makeover projects to share? Show me!

-Dawn