Red Coffee Table: Finished!

Last time I wrote, I showed you the before of our coffee table refashion, and today I'm so excited to show you the after! So, without further ado...



What do you think? We love how this piece turned out. To be honest, the first coat was a little dicey; the man at the paint counter warned me that this shade would need multiple coats, and he was absolutely right. The colour didn't start to come out right until after a very heavy-handed second coat, and it could probably still benefit from one more on the flat surfaces.

I'm so glad we went with such a bold colour! It really brings a new element to our living room. Now all that's left is to finish the table with a satin clear-coat and stitch up a few throw pillow covers to spruce up our sofa and chairs.

Have you made any bold decorating decisions lately?

Red Coffee Table

Hey there! It's summer time and the DIY bug bit us hard around here. There's nothing like an upcoming move to get my butt in gear toward finishing all of my little projects!

Today, I want to talk about our coffee table. Technically it's the Mister's coffee table, and I love it. It's the perfect size for our sofa, it has a lovely shape, two handy drawers (One for remotes and one for nail polish, naturally! Not shown in the picture above.) and the lower shelf is the perfect place to stash the Mister's extra-large Spiderman coffee table book and a couple of extra coasters.

I love our coffee table... but I think it could do more for us. When the Mister and I merged our furniture, we wound up with a lot of black-painted and dark-stained wood in the living room. Paired with a very beige sofa and a few beige chairs, and the whole thing comes off rather... meh. So, somewhere along the way, I got the crazy idea to paint our coffee table red.

Not just any red, but perhaps the brightest shade of red Behr makes; Behr 150B-7 in "Poinsettia". It's the very bottom panel on the swatch on the left... which just happens to match my very cheery Hello Kitty tee! I really wanted to spray paint it (for speed and for the great finish that spray paint achieves on furniture) but I couldn't find a bright red spray paint in a satin sheen anywhere in town, so I went with a satin Behr interior paint and a smooth, low-nap roller.

I've been painting this table mostly at night the last few evenings, so I have very few decent pictures to show you. It ought to be done in the next couple days, though, and I'll be back to show you the after. I hope you stay tuned!

Thrifted nightstand

About a year and a half ago I rescued this little nightstand from my neighborhood thrift shop. The sticker is long gone, but I believe I paid $8 for it. I have a tall dresser with a similar design, and I knew I could refinish this piece to fit into my every day life.

A month after purchasing the nightstand, my mister (although then he was only my fiance) and I made our move to Tennessee. Days before departing, while I was packing up the rest of my house, I decided to finally refinish the nightstand. (Totally logical.) After a coat of Rustoleum white primer and two coats of gray paint, it became this:

(Boy, do I miss that yard.)

Since then we got married and moved in together, and this poor little nightstand got sent away to the guest room, never to be seen again. It just didn't work with the dark bedroom furniture my mister brought with him, but I couldn't bear to part with it. I actually wound up without a nightstand of my own after that. Then yesterday, I was "shopping at home" and redecorating a few rooms of the house when it finally hit me. I could refinish this piece again, and then I'd get to enjoy it every day! Two coats of black satin spray paint later, and...

Truth be told, it looks better in person than it does in that photo. I love how the finish just seems to glow, and the black really makes the lines of this piece stand out! Once I get the rest of our room squared away, I'll be sure to get a better shot.

Do you have a favourite piece of art or furniture that you've sequestered away in another room of your house? Try reworking it so that it can be a part of your daily life!