I just finished refinishing this coffee table for my family room. My hubby and I recently got new chairs and sofa in our family room and the maroon leather ottoman we had just didn't go with the new look. I loved that ottoman too! Ah well - since it's now living at my Son and Daughter-in-law's house, I can visit it any time.
Just a little background on our new coffee table...We like to "discuss" our projects a lot before starting. And I mean A LOT! Lots of discussion went on at our house about what kind of look we wanted for our new coffee table. Should it be round or square or rectangular or oblong? Should it be wood or tile or iron or concrete? (I'm still thinking about that concrete idea, but that's gonna have to be for another project) Anyway, after several trips to some of our favorite haunts, I finally stumbled on this rather plain Jane table at my favorite consignment store.
I know - kinda BORING! But I had a vision! First of all, I sanded that table real good. I started off with a palm sander and then eventually ended up with good old fashioned elbow grease and sand paper. Then I decided I'd like to have a little gold showing through. A quick look-see through the paint cabinet in the garage and also through my craft room. No gold metallic paint. Off to Home Depot, where I decided on the 10 oz. Martha Stewart Metallic Paint in Vintage Gold. I painted 2 coats of that gold on the table (it acted as my primer also).
The next day my vision continued. I decided I wanted the base color to be a sea glass aqua kinda thing and I thought I had just the paint handy. So I painted one of the legs with the Glass Tile color I had left over from my downstairs bathroom. FLUB! It was way too light because I planned to put chalk paint over that and it needed more contrast. Another trip to Home Depot and I came up with this gorgeous color - I think it's called Edge of Forest. I failed to save the paint chip and the can doesn't even reference the color name. It's Behr though. Isn't this color pretty?
I was half tempted to just leave it like this. But on with the vision... I read a lot of blogs about using chalk paint and decided to try a go at making my own. I had some white paint and mixed it with plaster of paris and water. I measured about 2 to 1 of plaster of paris to paint. I added a splash of water and started stirring. And then I added a little more plaster of paris. And another splash of water. And I stirred a lot!
Then I painted my table using a brush. I wanted to wipe off the chalk paint, as I was going to make it look like a whitewashed effect. As I was painting and wiping (with cheesecloth) I realized I could go ahead and wipe really hard to get through that blue to the gold. I got my cheesecloth damp and it worked really well.
My neighbors across the street were working on a project in their garage, so they came over to check it out. I think they thought I was a little crazy with all my paint layering and wiping off. I called it a day. The next morning I had a little time so I decided to sand over the whole table with some fine sandpaper and then used some course paper for a little more distressing. Once again, I almost decided it was good. But on with the vision....I got some Minwax stain out in Provencial and stained that poor little table all over. And I wiped it off and I stained it again. And I wiped it off. I have to say, my heart was pounding I was so excited! My vision was coming into focus and I Loved it!
Off I went and left that little table to dry. The next day I checked it and was a bit nervous because that stain was still tacky. So off I went in hopes that I had not screwed it all up by putting stain on it. The NEXT day it was really getting good and dry. I decided to wait one more day and give some thought to whether I was going to wax it or use a polyurethane on it. It seemed like waxing would be easy, but did I mention I have 8 grandkids? I thought maybe the polyurethane would be my best decision. So I had some Modern Masters Clear Urethane from Sherwin Williams, but it is water based. After researching online, I decided the best option was to wipe the whole table with Mineral Spirits to kinda "cure" it so I could use that water based product. It worked like a charm! I put two coats of the urethane on (sanding with steel wool in between coats). And my table looks awesome in my family room with my new sofa!
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