I love a good refurbish project, so I’m always scouring OfferUp for a diamond in the rough. I came across this used console table for $15 and set out to pick it up. The picture as advertised showed a much cleaner table. When I arrived, I found it covered in black sharpie marks, a lot of white crusty stuff (yeah eeewww) and coated in so much candle wax it had me wondering if the owners held seances over it.
Yeah it was gross on the outside but I could tell it was a great table underneath, it just needed some love. This was definitely a refurbish project and I decided to go ahead and purchase it.
Clean, Sand & Surprise…
After two hours of scrubbing, scraping and cleaning I was finally ready to start my rehab project. I thought this table was solid wood, but soon after I started sanding the top with my belt sander I realized it was actually a veneer. It was a surprise I was not expecting, so I had to change my rehab plans. Originally I was planning to sand the wood and re-stain in a new color, but with a veneer table top and bottom shelf, sanding was not an option. So I decided to paint it white and gold.
Priming and Painting
I started by applying a shellac primer. I chose shellac because the table had a sheen to it which meant it had a finish on it which was not ideal for paint. When you have a somewhat shiny surface, paint doesn’t stick well and will chip off over time. So at that point you have two options, sand the surface to remove the sheen or use a shellac primer. I chose the latter.
I didn’t use any kind of special paint, just a gallon of plain flat white I picked up in the Lowes oops section for $9. Initially I thought I would get away with 2 coats, then 3, but it took 4 to completely cover the dark brown wood.
I taped off the table around the moulding and the bottom of the legs and then sprayed them with Rustoleum metallic gold spray paint. Then to complete my rehab project, I added 2 coats of Minwax Polycrylic in clear satin to the entire table.
Love at Last Sight
I love how my new table turned out. It was a lot of work, but I saved another piece of furniture piece from the landfill and now I have a table that looks like it costs a lot more than $15!
If you’re like me and love a good upcycling project, check out my upcycled bar cart.