Submitted By: Renewed Upon a Dream

I am SO excited to show you guys what I worked on last week!  I’m super abnormally proud of this project for some reason.  I think because it turned out even better than I had hoped.  Let’s see what you bloggy friends think of it.

We are trying to find new side tables for our living room.  The ones we have been using are glass top, metal bottom, not really our style anymore, so I’m on the hunt for a good pretty side table to fix up.  But in the meantime, I still wanted to get rid of the ones we have.  Plus, now that we have a new sectional in the living room, the spot where I normally sit (the chase part) is up next to the window, giving me no place to put a cup or mug while I sit.  Also, Brendan is always on his laptop in the living room, and we needed a place other than the coffee table for him to put his laptop when not in use.  I came up with a plan to solve all of the issues…

We have had a set of those old wooden tv trays sitting in our shoe closet for forever.  We rarely ever would get the trays out to use them though, so I decided to paint them, and use two of them pushed together as our side table, then another one for Brendan’s computer table, and the last one to squeeze between the chase & the window for me to use.

They were pretty dirty when I got them out of the back of the closet.  I cleaned them up, sanded them & got them outside to spray paint the top.  I used a grey spray paint called “Winter Grey” by Rustolium for the first layer. For this layer, I sprayed just the tops of the tables.  I didn’t prime the tables at all, but I used three coats of grey spray paint here to make sure I got good coverage.

I waited a day for this layer to dry before using my ScotchBlue Painter’s Tape with Edge Lock to tape out my designs while watching a movie.  Make sure when you do this that your tape is pressed down firmly the whole length of it &  your corners are square.  I used a small piece of tape to measure the stripes.  This way, each piece of tape was the same distance from the last one, so the strips would all be equal.

From there I took my taped off trays back outside for their navy blue layer of paint.  This time I painted the top as well as the legs with the blue spray paint.  Paint right over the tape that you laid.  I used two coats on the legs, and three coats on the top.

While the paint is still not quite dry, remove the tape to reveal your masterpiece!  I was so excited after removing the tape I did a little happy dance on the back patio.  My neighbors surely think I’m very strange.

After waiting another day and a half for the paint layers to completely dry, I sealed my work with some wipe-on poly.  I used only one coat on the legs, and three coats on the tops, sanding between layers.  Let that dry a few days, then they are ready to go!  I set them into their new places in the living room & I LOVE them!  They are perfect for what I needed them for.

The “side table” will likely eventually be replaced once I find something I like for there, but for now it is great for the space & allowed me to remove the old table from the room.

Also, I’ve already managed to knock over red wine onto the tables, and it wiped up no problem.  That poly works wonders I tell ya!

I really like the way these turned out.  They are really easy to move around, we can move Brendan’s laptop table over by mine by the window when it’s not in use, and we can each pull ours out to actually use as tv trays when we want to eat while watching Jeopardy from the couch, which happens more often than I should admit.  🙂

I didn’t distress these at all, and they are pretty shinny, and I like them like that.  I thought about distressing them, but I wasn’t sure that was really the look I was going for here.  They look all shinny & pretty & new, and that suits me for now.  Not everything has to be distressed.

Do you have a set of these in your house?  Would you ever think of painting them?  What do you think of my makeshift side table design?

Published: December 20, 2011Filed Under: Furniture Building Projects and Plans, Guest Bloggers Tagged: end tables, Furniture, Painting

About Cassity

Cassity started Remodelaholic with her husband, Justin, to share their love for knocking out walls together. She is an interior designer, wife, and mother of two. She and Justin have remodeled three homes from top to bottom and are working on their fourth. Making a house a home is her favorite hobby.