Coffee Table Makeover

I have wanted a pedestal coffee table for a long time. I have been scouring Craigslist, and then finally I found one for $20. I think the only reason it was left, it was listed as a center table, not a coffee table.

Of course it needed a little makeover, but it was just the shape and size I wanted. Here she is with some stain and paint. This might be one of my favorite makeovers yet. I was having a hard time getting a good after picture but here you go.




Here she is before

The after picture doesn't seem to be giving a good capture of the stain color. I used dark walnut and ebony. I wanted it a little darker, but this was one of the nightmare projects previously mentioned so I decided to leave well enough alone.

Here is what I did.

I decided to go with a stained wood top because I have a lot of white. I wanted something to break it up. Since I was staining, I removed all of the previous finish.

Make sure to clean off ALL DUST before staining. I used my compressor, microfiber cloth, and tack cloth to get it good and dust free.

Notice how the wood grain is going 4 different directions. This definitely made staining more challenging because you have to go in the direction of the wood grain.

Next I applied my first coat of stain.


Then panicked because it looked the exact color of the before picture. This is where things got a little sticky--literally. On the back of the stain can it says add more coats for a richer color so that is what I did. It ended up looking a beautiful color, but it was very tacky. I headed to google to see what I should do. Remove the stain with mineral spirits and start again so that is what I did. It was pretty amazing actually. It wiped right off. It hadn't soaked in at all--even after 24 hours of drying. The staining cycle continued for a few days. After the top was a color I could live with I turned my attention to the base.

I forgot pictures of this step, but I just spray painted the base. First I wiped with a deglosser, then primed, then painted.

After the base was done, I added a layer of fast drying satin poly to the top. I only did one coat because I used a Polyshade to stain so it already had a layer of protection.

All in all, I am happy with the transformation. I do wish the top could be a little darker, but I wasn't willing to take the chance of having to clean and re-stain again.

A couple more shots of the finished project.