Personalized accent pieces
I should probably make a blog series out of the pieces of furniture I have customized with a new paint job lately. Actually this piece needed a little more than painting.
This was a plain box-store coffee table that I’ve had for over a decade. It’s made of particle board/pressed wood with a wood- grain patterned laminate (Remember what we said about laminate?) It had some chips in the laminate, and the seams in the top may be separating a little (they felt rough), but the biggest issue here is that my furniture in the room where this sits is a different color now. Every accent piece is lighter brown–almost beige–except this one. What a perfect time to use the leftover paint from my wall patch project to upcycle this coffee table?
My steps:
1.) First I had to fix the chipped laminate on the legs. Because a) I knew that I was going to paint this and b) I was being lazy and thrifty, I used leftover joint compound from my wall patch project to do these fixes.
2.) Then, I sanded. Again, with laminate, you don’t have to sand if you have the right paint. Laminate is basically plastic, so sanding is not required. However, here because I had several marks or rough patches, I did sand. Also, taking the shine off this laminate is a good idea. New paint doesn’t like to adhere to high-gloss painted items. So I took the shine off with my 220-grit sandpaper. Always wipe off piece after sanding with a damp cloth to get all the dust and grit off.
3.) I did 2 coats of the beige paint (this is a paint WITH PRIMER) and let them dry overnight.
This stencil caught my eye in the craft store, so I thought to try this with some acrylic paint. The acrylic color is a metallic silver.
4.) I taped down my stencil and used the dry-brush technique to sponge on the design. I waited for drying time and moved to opposite sides the table after each stencil job to give each stencil even more time to dry.
5.) To protect the furniture’s new finish, I coated everything with clear semi-gloss polyurethane.
So, for all the drying time needed, this took longer than a weekend, but it was so worth it. I love the new look! What do you think?
