Tips for refinishing a coffee table

This is my coffee table “before”. I bought it at a thrift store mall. Which is different than a thrift store. It’s one of those places that has “booths” with a lot of vendors. I paid $20.00 for it. Which is definitely over my $5.00 limit. However when I’m buying something for my own personal use, I don’t always stick to my $5.00 limit. It is a very functional table, but with the new changes in my living room I wanted to change the color.

I kept waiting for warm weather so I could take it out and sand it. As you can see by the snow in the picture, it wasn’t all that warm on the day I finally decided to brave the cold.

I sanded the top really well, because I was going to stain it. The rest of the table I just gave a quick sanding so that I could paint it.

I started with a coat of Kilz primer. (painting it on the kitchen table)

I painted 2 coats of Kilz before I started painting it with this…

… a quart of FREE Glidden paint! When Glidden had their promotion a few months ago for free paint, I asked begged my friends to fill out the forms and give them to me. This quart was from my friend Sherry. Isn’t she a good friend? She picked out a great color, Crisp Linen White. I’m sort of over Heirloom White, cause it’s a little too yellow to suit me these days.

Because I use my coffee table for a footstool, the boards were separating slightly. I glued and clamped them, but I wasn’t able to draw them in enough.

I picked up this special putty (plastic wood by Dap). I usually use wood filler, but it is not stainable. This putty is already colored. I bought walnut. I had never used this product before and I was surprised to find out that you stain the piece before using the filler. I used dark walnut stain.

I puttied the table, not realizing that I should have been a little neater. This stuff was very hard to sand. When I sanded it off, it lightened the stain color. I applied more stain but it wouldn’t take very well.

Here is the table now, in my “almost new” living room. You can see that the center is lighter (where I sanded too much).

But it works perfect for me! I love the look of the white and the walnut together!

I sealed the top with polycrylic. It was too cold to seal it outside, and the polycrylic, even though it has an odor, is not as offensive as polyurethane.

I applied about 5-6 coats of the polycrylic.

This table will never be neat. If I were to take a picture right now, you would see: my camera, my camera cord, camera tripod, some coupons, a tape measure, cordless phone, a sheet, (I was sanding earlier, and didn’t want my computer to suck in the dust, so I used the sheet to cover the computer) a drill bit, a couple of bills, and some magazines. And of course my laptop is usually sitting on the corner where I sit.

I am practically finished with the media center base unit. The doors are attached, and the shelf is installed. I still need to caulk a couple of cracks, and paint again. I’m pretty pleased with how it turned out.

have a great weekend!

gail