Project Post: End Table Upcycle

So I may have gotten into a weird "nesting" phase.  I have been obsessed with this Facebook group "Vintage Yardsale Utah" where people all across Utah buy and sell their vintage pieces a lot of which are furniture that can be up-cycled.  Well if you've been to our new house, then you can attest that it is pretty bare.  We moved from a 900 sq ft, one level, two bedroom home to a 3600 sq ft two level home and have not bought ANY new furniture for it.  It especially looks bare because our ceilings are vaulted so everything that we do have just looks small haha.  But I love it none-the-less :)

I would absolutely LOVE to furnish my house with vintage up-cycled furniture though I know that won't be completely practical but I just love the old charm and story from each piece.  Anywho, someone posted an end table on the site I mentioned for pretty cheap and it was solid wood and in really great shape.  So I bought it!  This was actually only my second purchase off the site and I've been a member for quite a few months now so I'm happy to say I'm not going too crazy...yet.

This table, I'm pretty sure, was not vintage but definitely needed something done with it.  It was in really good shape and the wood and stain was beautiful, only needing a little bit of tlc. The previous owner had already stripped the top of the stain in preparation to re-stain it a darker stain and then her plan was to paint the rest a lighter color.  My plans exactly when I saw the picture on Facebook!  She was 8 months pregnant and said quite frankly she just wasn't going to get to it.  And here I am about 6 months pregnant, hoping I would :)  So I took the bad boy home and got right to work.

I already have a piece of furniture taking up half of our garage right now and it is a BEAST of a project I'm finding out...so I sadly ran out of steam and it got put on the back burner.  Carson gave me a little bit of guff that I am adding to our unfinished projects that are hogging his parking spot but I assured him it would be done that week.  Well I finished it in about 3 days!

I didn't take pictures along the way to document the process.  I kind of wish I had, especially before I glazed it at the end because the glaze completely changed the paint color.  I knew this would happen and I actually like it better with the glaze but it would just be interesting to go back and compare before and after pics at that point because it is very different.  Oh well.

Here it is all finished

Here's the run down on how I did it 

and what I used:

• Removed old stain (which was already done- yahoo!) on top piece 
• Applied Minwax Pre-Stain Wood Conditioner (learned from a friend that this is a definite MUST to get a uniform look of the stain, otherwise the wood soaks it up more or less in different spots)
• Applied the Stain- I used Minwax Dark Walnut 
• Applied Minwax Polyurethane in clear semi-gloss (this seals and protects the stain and gives it a nice, shiny finish)
• Roughed up the rest of the table with a 120 grit sandpaper to prep it to be primed
• Primed the table using just a basic white latex primer
• Painted the table- I bought a paint from Home Depot's "oops" section where they have messed up on someone's order or whatever and sell it very cheap.  I got a gallon for $7!  It was America's Finest (by Glidden) but since it was in the oops section, it didn't have a name so I have no clue what it was called.  I wasn't too particular with the color, just knew I wanted a light grayish color and found one pretty darn close.  Definitely the way to go on paint if you can.
• Sanded down any imperfections from previous paint job using a 220 grit sandpaper and then applied a second coat of paint.
• Distressed it using a 60 grit sandpaper
• Antiqued it using Sherwin Williams Van Dyke Brown glaze.  Now this was sort of tricky...The paint I bought was a flat finish (I would've liked semi-gloss but you get what you get in the oops section) and I was originally going to antique it with stain that I already had but I tried it out on an inconspicuous place (definitely do this before you go full force on it- or even better, test it on a scrap piece of wood) and it was a disaster!  the paint soaked it right up and didn't let me wipe it so it was DARK.  So I decided to try glazing it but was afraid I'd get the same outcome as stain and glaze are pretty similar.  I'm so glad I found the glaze from Sherwin Williams.  It worked great!  I did have to use a lot of mineral spirits though.  So I would very lightly (like dabs here and there) put the glaze on a small section and then dip a paper towel in mineral spirits and wipe it around.  So I didn't really use all that much glaze at all.  I have found I really like mineral spirits though.  In fact, I spilled some glaze in my garage (of course away from the plastic drop cloth I had out) and it wiped right up with mineral spirits!
• Lastly I put a protective coating on- I personally like a spray coating because I feel it is easier, but really who knows, because I haven't ever tried the other kind.  I used Rust-Oleum Clear Enamel.  The can said it gave a glossy finish which I really liked because since the paint I used was flat, I wanted something to give it a shiny, finished look and this did great!

I am pretty darn happy with the way it turned out and how fast I was able to do it having a toddler and all.  Maybe I was just trying to prove Carson wrong ;)  

This lovely thing now sits in my family/living room next to our old school couch.  Even just that one little piece makes it feel a little more furnished.  I love it.  Now I think that gave me a little kick to finish the other piece I started :)