This is my $6 coffee table.
And here is how my coffee table looks now:
Let me tell you the story of my $6 coffee table.
I had finally decided that our little ottoman wasn't cutting it as the spot to put plates and cups on in the middle of the living room. Especially considering the fact that we don't have a dining room or kitchen table in our house. (1100 square feet really pushes you to get the things that you're not using out of the house.) Hoping to find a cheap coffee table for $15-$20 that I could refinish, I was keeping my eyes open on craigslist.com, etc. As I was heading to work one day on a Thursday, I spotted a garage sale on the corner with the ideal coffee table in the yard. I only had $6 cash, but I decided to stop anyway on the off chance they'd take a check or something. When I asked the lady how much she wanted for the coffee table, she said "Mmmm, how about $6?" Seriously?! So I bought it.
I was so excited about this little blessing from the Lord. (These are the type of things that remind me that He loves me personally and knows my every desire.)
As I was trying to decide what to do for the refinish, we went to Home Depot where I looked through the paint selection for inspiration. After pulling together a palette of the colors in the room, I decided to tie the coffee table in with the sectional in our living room since I don't have anything else in the room with navy blue in it. This photo doesn't really do the colors justice. Poor lighting, I know.
Here's how the refinishing went:
I started by sanding the table down. It took me about half an hour to do a light sanding so that the table would hold onto the paint.
The next morning, I pulled out the paintbrush and got to work painting.
Once I had put two coats of paints on the table, I taped the border on the inside of the table for the navy blue.
For the design on the middle of the table, I took a template from this lovely lady's blog and traced it out.
I freehanded the painting of the pattern. (Edit: Apparently this was misleading. I meant to explain that I painted over the traced pattern with a paintbrush... I think that free-handing was the wrong word to use.)
And here is the finished product. It usually takes me a while to process things, so I'm still deciding whether or not I like it. =)
3 comments:
We are 6 ppl in 1200 sf so I know what you mean about having to prioritize space! The coffee table looks beautiful, I can't believe you free-handed that design, it's so perfect!
Thanks! I traced the whole design in pencil before I painted it. Maybe free-handing it wasn't quite the right word to use... I free-handed the painting over the pencil. My painted lines aren't completely perfect (irritating to a perfectionist like me), but I didn't know a way to paint them perfectly. I guess I could have made a stencil???
It looks fabulous! I think that those quick decisions about things are usually right on. Otherwise, I hem and haw forever, and I never get it quite right. Well done! You have a steady hand...maybe you'll be a surgeon in the future? :)
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