Monday, July 25, 2011

Mother's Day Side Table

I got this table for $8 I think, at Goodwill for my mom. When her and my dad divorced she left most of the furniture behind so her new house is a bit empty. I got this and another table for her for Mothers day but thanks to the wicked heat I've barely been able to touch it. This table was frustrating because my can of black paint somehow became a goopy mess. I should have just stopped and got some more but I got stubborn. 

Here is the before: 

The detailed panels are plastic, but the rest of it is actual wood. 

After a coat of Zinsser oil based primer (the gold label):


Mid way through with the black paint, fixing the top after I missed some goopy bits and had to sand it back down:



Very frustrating. 


And since I am horrible at using spray paint, I did all the detailed bits by hand with a foam brush. Yeah, remind me never to buy anything with detailing ever again. I kept finding spots of white in the black. ARGH!

And now the after:


(the poly is still drying in the crevices there, it's all 100% black with about 5 coats on the detailing, I promise) 


Heck no I wasn't going to paint the inside. Plus it'd be a black cave if I had. 


I do like the original pulls on it, they're neat.

 Overall I feel like it's OK-- and I'm not going to touch it again. But I just don't think I'm a fan of black paint. But any other color would looked a bit weird in Mom's living room. And I know our TV dresser is black too but I feel like the dresser would be cuter in creamy white (honeymilk)-- I don't like the idea of sanding back all my hard work though so I will wait a while. White is a much more forgiving paint too, when I brought the side table in from the garage to do the poly on it I had to do another black coat on it since I'd missed streaks of white all over it. *sigh*. I threw the can of black away last night so I can't be tempted to paint anything boogery black again. 

Things I learned:
- I don't like black paint
- Don't use old paint
- Don't leave primer on for weeks at a time since it grabs ALL the dust in the garage and you'll have to sand again
- No more pieces with detail on them
- Don't use black paint!

Oh well, live and learn! :)









10 comments:

  1. Sorry you had such a nightmare-ish time with the boogery paint! We painted a desk black last summer and then put polyurethane over it...I don't know if it was our technique (which is likely) or the products themselves, but the finish was just funky looking. I wasn't a fan of the black, either. I think lighter colors hide imperfections much more nicely, as weird as that sounds. From the pictures, your table looks nice, though! (And I like those pillows in the background.) I bet your mom will like it. :)

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  2. hey! great job! I totally understand about not wanting to paint the inside, I never do! and not being happy with it because of a color preference, but it's still a nice transformation! ;) I love that you listed what you learned. I had a HUGE flop yesterday, so it's good to keep it real! {aka I'll be sharing my loss soon.} HA!

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  3. I once painted my entire a bathroom a colour that turned into a kind of sickly dusty purple. It was supposed to be taupe. And because it was such a pain to paint...I lived with it for 10 years...

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  4. it looks awesome! love how the pulls pop against the black paint!

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  5. @Catherine

    Oooh that sucks. My mom did similar when I was younger, we had a pink hallway for about 6 years because she couldn't find a non pink beige!

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  6. For what it's worth, I like it painted black!

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  7. That's an amazing job. Love the shape of the piece, too!

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  8. Great job painting it. I'm finding that I don't like black either. Dark grey is my limit, but even that can be tricky when you're dealing with detailing. I just refinished a desk with dark grey and thought, "I'm never going to get furniture with so much detailing ever again." We'll see how long that lasts... :)

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  9. I'd LOVE a present that beautiful made gorgeous by my children

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