I want to start by addressing that today is Valentine's Day. Happy Valentine's Day! If your not able to spend your day with someone special, be sure to treat yourself or do something that you love! Today, I want to share with you something that I love.... REVAMPing furniture!
I love giving a new life to an old or generic piece of furniture (Revamp)! With a little bit of time and a little bit of money, you can have yourself a brand new custom piece of furniture that you just might fall in love with, and your friends might too. Changing up an old piece is so much easier than you might think... the hardest part for me is always deciding which color to pick!
And now, I shall tell you the story of the Goodwill Table.
Once upon a time, about 5 years ago, there was a sturdy little pine end table that was donated to a Goodwill. While thrifting one day, a mother -my mother- saw the little table and thought it might make a good end table in her home even though it didn't match anything. She told herself and her daughter that she would paint it before she used it in the home and then she purchased it for $5. This little end table, sat in a spare room for a while, the mother was too busy to paint it. Slowly, the table creeped into the main areas of the home where it was covered with a table cloth. Upon returning to the home last summer, the daughter took the mother into a boutique thrift store where new -old but new- furniture finds were piled in the entrance. Scratched up and splotched with chewed up, dried up, bubble gum wads were two matching tables that were not cleaned up to go on display. The daughter noticed that they were identical to the Goodwill table. The daughter pointed them out to the mother and the two tables were purchased for $15 total. Now the mother had three sturdy pine end tables, but they did not match anything in her home. The daughter began giving the mother lots of ideas of all the things she could do to the tables to make them so SOO much better! -and here is where I will stop telling the story in 3rd person.. I know I know, I was just getting to the good part. so let me continue.-
After finally deciding to give them a Distressed Farm House look, I took my mom to Lowe's to purchase our supplies which came to around $50:
- Spray Paint (satin ivory)
- Spray Varnish Remover.... Get the Gel Varnish Remover if available.
- Scrapers (probably not the technical name)
- Sand Paper Blocks
- Walnut Stain
- Spray Sealant
- Painters tape
Now it was time for a little elbow grease. (not purchased at Lowe's)
1 - We wanted to stain the wood on top darker so we needed to remove the varnish. I set the tables outside, in shade, and coated the top with the spray varnish remover. After letting it sit for 20 minutes I began to scrape with my scraper. Each table top had to be sprayed and scraped about 3 different times to even get most of it off. I was disappointed that the spray didn't penetrate and remove the varnish as well as I was hoping it would. **I suggest getting a Gel Varnish Remover instead of the spray, If its available. Gel will coat the top more generously and reduce the time you spend scraping. I also suggest wearing gloves, the varnish remover burns when it touches skin! ** After all of the scraping and most of the varnish being removed, I lightly sanded the pieces all over. (top left picture)
2 - Next is Painting and Staining the top. My Mom actually did this part. She turned the tables upside down, taped off the top (now bottom) and gave them two even coats of Ivory spray paint. After the paint had dried completely, she taped of the base and applied the stain with a foam brush to the top. She loved the look of the wood grain and decided to stop at one coat of stain. (bottom left picture)
3 - The base of the tables were so stark white and clean looking. To achieve that Farm House feel we still needed to do distressing. After painting the tables earlier and letting them dry, we were just so exited with the transformation and decided to stain the tables too! The only problem- the sun was going down! We raced against daylight as we sat outside with the can of stain, cheap foam brushes and rags. We very VERY quickly slapped the stain on to the ivory bases and into the tiny crevasses with the foam brush, then took our rags and rubbed in and wiped off. As we wiped around the leg bases we looked as if we were shining shoes and left as much stain in the cracks as possible. As darkness set in, we finished the last table! The were GORGEOUS!!! they looked old and authentic, as if they had always been that color and had been handed down through generations. These 3 little thrifty tables purchased for $20, were now of so much more value to us! The next morning mom coated them with sealant to protect the beauty we had created! (above, right side picture)
The original Goodwill table was the only table that had a drawer... on the drawer was a little wooden knob that got painted with the rest of the piece. To give the table even more character we decided to give it a new knob. We went back to Lowe's and decided on a small glass-like knob, since it fit with the Farm House look we were going for. After putting it on the table, it looked better but it just wasn't right, kind of just "blah!". So I kept my eyes open for The Knob. While browsing Hobby Lobby, not even thinking about knobs, I stumbled upon the knob section. There is where I found that magic knob that would pull everything together!
Voilà!!!!
The 3 thrifted tables lived happily ever after in the living room of a mother who loves them, with a daughter who hopes that they will be handed down to her someday! (Ahem, hint hint)
Do you have furniture that could use a change? what do you want to do to it? OR have you REVAMPed something and fallen in love with it again?
Tell me about it below!
Until next Thursday,
Ashley
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