Sometimes the furniture you find at garage sales or thrift stores has so much potential but a super ugly finish! Some of these pieces are totally worth taking home and giving a fresh coat of paint for a brand new look. The trick is to find pieces that are made completely of wood, not covered in an ugly wood laminate.
This vintage side table has a really cool rounded top and three drawers for convenient storage! The brown-orange stain is totally dated, and it is starting to peel at the top.
To give this piece a new life, start with a really solid sanding. If you try to paint over the current finish, your paint won’t stick and will constantly flake and fall off.
To get this specific rustic look, you will need to paint your piece with several layers of paint. I use hardware store sample paints that I have mixed with calcium to create my own chalk paint. I start by painting my lightest colors and finish with the darkest. Each coat should completely cover the coat beneath it.
Now, comes the sanding. I like to use a block sander that has different grits on each side so I can easily wear down certain layers of paint more to give the piece a rustic look. With this piece I painted a coat of yellow, blue, red, and then brown. I used my sand paper to selectively show layers of the paint to make this piece look perfectly aged.
It is happily lounging now in its new home with its new look!