Coffee Table Makeover

I'm slowly but surely chipping away at the project list for the living room. For the most part we didn't use a coffee table in the loft and we really missed having one.

So remember this vintage coffee table? In the loft, we used the marble top on our kitchen island (both incarnations). I kept the fruitwood base, thinking I would use it to make a foot-of-the-bed bench, but I liked the marble in our living room, so the frame and marble top were joined together again...

I knew the wood would have to be painted out though - it was not pretty up close. I thought about doing a gray shade, but the room really needs more white, especially for when the sofa fabric gets changed to a darker color.

I remembered seeing this Christine side table from Oly Studio with a client and I love the painted and gilded finish. I especially liked that the gilding was a little worn and not so new looking. 

I didn't want to do an antiqued white paint though, but I did want it to look chalky and very matte, so I knew I wouldn't spray it. I had a tupperware of the flat paint that was on our walls in the loft. It is a very soft, creamy white, with some gray undertones. I think it's BM's Arctic White.

I sanded the old finish just enough to sort of rough up the surface and then I dry-brushed a base coat.

I lightly sanded again - it goes really fast with those handy little sanding blocks. I use them way more often than my electric hand-sander for light jobs like this because I feel like I have more control.

Then I did another dry coat. Sometimes, if my paint is a little on the dry side or my brush is not perfectly new, I'll get more brush strokes than I want and that's why dry brushing works well. For the final coat it works well to sort of quickly beat the barely wet brush on the surface. It makes for a soft, burnished finish.

To make the finish look more like the Oly table, I used my favorite Krylon gold leaf pen to lightly draw on some faux gilding.

To make it look a little more beat up and not so new, I lightly sanded the gold, too.

I thought about gilding down the ridges of the legs too, but I think it would have been overboard. I might go back and add it later though, once I lay down the new rug I've been working on.

Along with the rug I'll layer on top of the jute, I have plans to reupholster the green chairs and the vintage sofa and to change out the pillows.

I also really need to add a window treatment. I think I'll make three roman shades in a medium gray color and layer those under curtains in a shade close to the wall color (which is all washed out here). The goal is to sort of hide most of the unfortunately placed a/c unit.

Lots to do still, but it feels good to be steadily knocking out the projects. :)