Ok this is confusing even for me.
I rarely blog.
I have two blogs. This blog. And my makeup blog.
I posted DIY tutorials on my makeup blog because they were items for my makeup room. This doesn't fit in there. Oh well. I'll link my other DIY tutorials at the bottom of this post.
MOVING ALONG.
We bought this medium sized round table we planned to use as a dining table in our tiny dining room. It was pretty ugly and scratched up, and I had big plans to fix it up and make it beautiful and cheery and all things nice.
Yeahh......and 3 years went by just like that. Until finally last month I decided to redo the whole house again. Or rather, get back to all the grand plans I had when I first moved in. So the table finally got a fresh start.
As I cleared out junk to make way for organization, my entire house got messier and messier and I needed inspiration and decided to drop the mess and give the table a quick makeover. I'm organized like that.
I had two jobs for this table:
- make the dining area look larger and brighter.
- bring out the pale blue wall colour and help the room be more cohesive. Up until I mentioned this last month, apparently none of the other inhabitants of this house had noticed that the walls were blue.
I started by running over to the nearest store to get spray paint and sand paper. Picked out the nicer/lighter of the two blues available (Arrow brand's "Taxi Blue") and bought two cans. It was darker than I liked but I couldn't find anything else and I wanted spray paint since it'd be fastest.
Then I got to sanding the top and sides about 3 times, wiping the dust off til it was as dust-free as I could get it. I used a medium grit sandpaper.
Here's the laziest part. My primer paint had long dried up and I found ivory spray paint left over from who knows what.
I figured....kinda the same idea if not for the priming part, right?
So I sprayed painted two thin messy layers of ivory/off-white spray paint onto the top and sides, as you see below. My purpose was to get the blue to show up as planned, rather than making it battle with the brown wood colour.
After letting the white dry for a few mins, I sprayed the blue in straight lines along the grain of the wood. I tried to be professional and make sure my spray trails started and ended past the edges of the table but that was not always the case. I wanted results in my house-to-home efforts and I wanted it fast! haha. So I didn't really take pictures of the blue layers but I did about 5 thin coats, letting it dry between 3-15mins per coat, depending on what I did indoors while waiting =D
I lightly sanded the 3rd layer and the last layer with a fine grit sandpaper. It should've been finer but I used what I had and just made sure I was extra gentle.
I did (unintentionally) end up leaving the table outside to "cure" for a couple days. I don't think it's THAT necessary, especially if you stuck to THIN coats, but I'm sure it's a good idea if you can afford the time and effort.
I read that I should seal everything in with wood wax but for the life of me, I just can't seem to find any in all the stores I've looked. Finally bought a "Shining Lotion" from the good ol' "uncle behind my house", the old hardware store owner who first taught me how to wire up my Hollywood mirror lights. I plan to wipe down the table with that stuff tomorrow but in the meantime, I thought I'd take some 'After' shots of my new table back in its spot.
Yea so these shots were actually taken to send to an in-law who gave us that cookie display on the table, made in India.
I know this paint job won't last without any sealant but until I find a good solution to that, this'll do for now. I figure I'll just sand it in random areas to give it a rustic look when it starts looking too nicked and scratched again.
Next is to decide if I wanna do anything to the bottom leg and platform, and I'm also thinking of gold-dipping the chair legs. Decisions decisions.
And yup, if the "shining lotion" works out tomorrow, I'll see if any difference shows up in photos and post them below. Til then! =)
____________________________________________________________
My other DIY tutorials:
DIY HOLLYWOOD-STYLE MIRROR WITH LIGHTS TUTORIAL
TV CABINET TURNED MAKEUP SHELF TUTORIAL
I rarely blog.
I have two blogs. This blog. And my makeup blog.
I posted DIY tutorials on my makeup blog because they were items for my makeup room. This doesn't fit in there. Oh well. I'll link my other DIY tutorials at the bottom of this post.
MOVING ALONG.
We bought this medium sized round table we planned to use as a dining table in our tiny dining room. It was pretty ugly and scratched up, and I had big plans to fix it up and make it beautiful and cheery and all things nice.
Yeahh......and 3 years went by just like that. Until finally last month I decided to redo the whole house again. Or rather, get back to all the grand plans I had when I first moved in. So the table finally got a fresh start.
As I cleared out junk to make way for organization, my entire house got messier and messier and I needed inspiration and decided to drop the mess and give the table a quick makeover. I'm organized like that.
I had two jobs for this table:
- make the dining area look larger and brighter.
- bring out the pale blue wall colour and help the room be more cohesive. Up until I mentioned this last month, apparently none of the other inhabitants of this house had noticed that the walls were blue.
I started by running over to the nearest store to get spray paint and sand paper. Picked out the nicer/lighter of the two blues available (Arrow brand's "Taxi Blue") and bought two cans. It was darker than I liked but I couldn't find anything else and I wanted spray paint since it'd be fastest.
Then I got to sanding the top and sides about 3 times, wiping the dust off til it was as dust-free as I could get it. I used a medium grit sandpaper.
Here's the laziest part. My primer paint had long dried up and I found ivory spray paint left over from who knows what.
I figured....kinda the same idea if not for the priming part, right?
So I sprayed painted two thin messy layers of ivory/off-white spray paint onto the top and sides, as you see below. My purpose was to get the blue to show up as planned, rather than making it battle with the brown wood colour.
As you can see, not the neatest spray paint job.
After letting the white dry for a few mins, I sprayed the blue in straight lines along the grain of the wood. I tried to be professional and make sure my spray trails started and ended past the edges of the table but that was not always the case. I wanted results in my house-to-home efforts and I wanted it fast! haha. So I didn't really take pictures of the blue layers but I did about 5 thin coats, letting it dry between 3-15mins per coat, depending on what I did indoors while waiting =D
I lightly sanded the 3rd layer and the last layer with a fine grit sandpaper. It should've been finer but I used what I had and just made sure I was extra gentle.
I did (unintentionally) end up leaving the table outside to "cure" for a couple days. I don't think it's THAT necessary, especially if you stuck to THIN coats, but I'm sure it's a good idea if you can afford the time and effort.
I read that I should seal everything in with wood wax but for the life of me, I just can't seem to find any in all the stores I've looked. Finally bought a "Shining Lotion" from the good ol' "uncle behind my house", the old hardware store owner who first taught me how to wire up my Hollywood mirror lights. I plan to wipe down the table with that stuff tomorrow but in the meantime, I thought I'd take some 'After' shots of my new table back in its spot.
If I hadn't been so "kancheong" (kinda like overexcited?) to finish it, I would've filled the little holes and what not but I decided to skip that and go "au natural". So you can see the original scratches and all below the blue paint.
Yea so these shots were actually taken to send to an in-law who gave us that cookie display on the table, made in India.
I know this paint job won't last without any sealant but until I find a good solution to that, this'll do for now. I figure I'll just sand it in random areas to give it a rustic look when it starts looking too nicked and scratched again.
Next is to decide if I wanna do anything to the bottom leg and platform, and I'm also thinking of gold-dipping the chair legs. Decisions decisions.
And yup, if the "shining lotion" works out tomorrow, I'll see if any difference shows up in photos and post them below. Til then! =)
____________________________________________________________
My other DIY tutorials:
DIY HOLLYWOOD-STYLE MIRROR WITH LIGHTS TUTORIAL
TV CABINET TURNED MAKEUP SHELF TUTORIAL
