From Grandma to Gorgeous - An Endtable Update

This post was originally posted on 4 You With Love.

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Last winter D's grandmother passed away and her apartment at the assisted living facility needed to be cleaned out and everything put into storage.  However, there were some pieces that weren't going to fit into the storage unit and my mother-in-law was going to donate them to Goodwill.

Not wanting to pass up free furniture and wanting D to have some of his grandmother's things in our home, I loaded them into Donnie Durango (yes, I have named my vehicle) and brought them home.  This is one of the end tables. 

Over Labor Day weekend, I was finally able to get around to updating this lovely lady of an end table.  I hate to say it but it does look a bit like a piece of furniture a grandmother would own.  The medium brown stain, the very traditional shape, the doors style...yup, a piece from Grandma.  But as we have seen a million times, a traditional shape with an updated paint job can equal a beautiful piece to be treasured.

First up was a good cleaning.  I wiped her down with a damp rag and then let dry while I got my sanding stuff together.

The top, which was a solid piece of wood got sanded to bare wood.  Thank goodness for my orbital sander.  I used 80 grit first, followed by 120 grit.  A sanding blog took care of the curvy edges.

A wipe down with a microfiber cloth and another with a damp cloth to prep the wood for stain and I was ready to go.  Three coats of water-based espresso stain later, I had a gorgeous deep and dark top.  A couple of coats of clear paste wax and this part was done.  I love the sheen from the wax.  I was surprised how much I love it versus the usual poly I usually use.

 
Once that was done, it was onto the base.  Since I didn't want to sand the whole thing - chalk paint it was the obvious choice.  I was so happy with how my last chalk paint project turned out so I used the same recipe I used before that I found on Elizabeth & Co.  Using leftover light greige paint from the living room, some dark grey oops paint and white flat paint, I created a barely greige color that looked great with the top. 

2 coats of paint, a light sand to smooth the paint out, some light distressing and a coat of the clear paste wax and I was done!

What do you think?

I think she turned out lovely.

Best part, Since I was able to use stain and paints I already had and I was able to use the knobs that were originally on the end table so my cost of this project was $0.00. Can I hear a wahoo?

She looks great in the space and best part, other than the price, is that I am already using the cubby in the middle to store some of the Christmas presents I have already purchased.

Marilyn, thank you so much for letting me share this project with your readers!

And for those that made it all the way to the end of my post, be sure to head over to Claiming Our Space to check out Marilyn's stool project and maybe stay a while to see what we are up too. I would love to have you as a follower.

K