Summer of DIY

   When I got out of school that first week in June i told myself - this summer is the summer of DIY! I am going to finally finish my classroom projects, re-do that furniture that been sitting in my garage, organize the cabinets, etc. etc. etc. Well, July rolled around and I had yet to do a single project on my list. Oh, I was having a grand summer just not a productive one! So, I began spending some quality time in my garage with my sander and an end table. And a week later ... ta-da!

I originally got the table from my mom, who bought it at a garage sale. The original color of the wood went with nothing in my house, but I liked the look of the lines of the table and the sturdiness of it. I knew I wanted to re-do it, it just took about a year to get around to it.

This re-do project was fairly easy. The most difficult part was sanding the beveled sides & the legs, as you can see I ended up not doing a complete sand on the sides and just let the old color show a little, I ended up liking that look.

        

I am not a professional my any means but if you'd like to try something similar here's what I did: 

   1. Take the legs of the furniture. This is very important if you are doing two different colors - if you don't your lines will not be neat and clean. 

   2. Sand the furniture as best you can. The lower the grit for this part, the better (I used 60 grit). An electric sander will make this process much quicker and easier, but is not necessary.

   3. I painted the legs with a foam brush and  Behr Paint in Cotton Fluff. I used 2 coats.

   4. I stained the top with Miniwax stain, Jacobean. I only needed one coat, as the wood underneath was originally fairly dark the stain looked good (to me) with just one coat.
   5. I sanded the table top (not the legs) after the stain had time to dry. Here, the higher the grit the better. I used 220.
   6. I placed the stencil in the middle of the table and painted over with a foam brush, the same color I did the legs. If I did this again. i would probably use a roller brush, and go VERY lightly - the less paint on your brush for stencils the better. There are a few areas I wasn't really happy with the way it turned out, too much paint on my brush and it seeped out of the stencil. I only did one coat of paint.
   7. After the paint had time to dry I sealed the table top with a polyurethane coat, in clear satin. (Home depot man suggested it). However, it did turn the white paint a little brown - I think this was the spreading of the stain. I ended up liking the look though.
   8. Finally, I sanded the top again. I used 220 grit here too, but even higher would be good!
   9. Re-assemble your table - make sure those screw are tight!
  10. Enjoy your newly re-done furniture!

                                                     

                                                                  Original table in all it's glory

Stenciling the top

Sanding and painting legs

Close up of the table top