I liked the shape of this coffee table from the get go and wanted to buy it. John gave me a look in front of the guy selling it like, Are you kidding me! Then smiled and said, “If you like it and can picture it looking nice, we can get it”. Yay for a trusting hubby! :)

I wanted to keep the top wood, but it had so many imperfections! I started by using CitriStrip and I stripped the top down twice. Then it was time to start sanding. I sanded, and sanded, and thought it looked good and stained it. John came home and said it didn’t look good enough (insert annoyed look on my face here). I gladly… cough, cough, ok in an irritated way said that he would have to redo it if he thought it needed it. He sanded for probably a good 30-40 minutes. I’ve got to say, I’m so glad he did. The top came out PERFECT! We stained it with Minwax Red Mahogany and did a couple extra coats on the top with Polyacrilic just to be sure it was sealed well.

Pretty right? Yeah, yeah, he’s right. I know! :) Time to work on the bottom half. I wanted to use a bright aqua/teal color on the bottom. After it was painted – see How to Paint Furniture – I distressed it heavily using 60 grit sand paper.

I learned that you can use stain as a glaze so I thought I would try that out on this piece, too. I used the same stain that we did the top on the bottom and then quickly wiped it off to create the effect I was looking for. The only main difference is that it’s more messy and it dries MUCH faster. I don’t mind that though and am very happy with the results.

Another small detail that I also added was replacing the handle with an antique handle I already had on hand. I had been waiting for the right piece to use it on and this one definitely worked well with it!

Here she is all done!

Happy Redesigns,

Sarah

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