end table / up date

I spent months looking for end tables that would go with our newly updated, comfy, cozy living room.  I found some I liked but they were either too tall, too short, not the right color, or failed to make me excited about them.  I didn't want black end tables because our couch and love seat are black.  I wasn't crazy about white and wasn't a big fan of all glass.  Here are some that I liked...

Crate and Barrel: $399.  Too expensive.

Crate and Barrel: $79.95.  Too short. 

Target: $99.  Too much glass, too tall. 

While I can't make a decision about what I want to eat at a restaurant, (I have a reputation of holding up a dinner order when we go out to eat) I know exactly what I want when it comes to home decorating or renovating.  If I don't get overly excited about it or lay awake in bed at night thinking about it.. it's not "IT".  

Side story:  When Ehren and I went out to dinner to celebrate buying a house, he asked me, 

"do you know how you want to decorate our house or any projects you want to do?"  I told him I already knew what I wanted to do in every single room and proceeded to tell him... room by room.  All he could think of was dollar signs, I'm sure.  Then, two months later when we moved in, the projects began!

So, during one of our many trips to Home Depot, I checked out the Martha Stewart display that I had been eyeing.  She has a line of metallic and textured paints (bronze, copper, silver, dark silver, etc) that can be used on basically any surface.  I decided to get the dark silver, called "Thundercloud" and refinish the end tables we already had.  

I inherited these end tables from my parents when I went to college and I'm pretty sure they are older than me.  The "brown-ness" of these coffee tables in my black, white and grey living room was bothering me.  So, I busted out the sander and got to it!

Before. 

The brown... the horror!  Just kidding, but obviously they look out of place and outdated.  Cozy was in his usual spot.. on or near my current project.  DIY makes him so tired.   

Before sanding. 

After sanding. 

I sanded the end tables pretty quickly, mostly to rough them up and take away the slick finish.  I was going to prime them and primer sticks to almost anything so no need to sand perfectly or evenly.  

Then, after cleaning them off, I got out the primer that I used for some outdoor furniture I painted a while ago.  

After primer. 

Cozy was right there in the action.  Notice the paint on his ear?  And you guessed it, he got paint on his back, too. 

Let the painting begin!  The Martha Stewart paint is very thin and went a long way.  Isn't it purty?

After one coat of metallic paint. 

I made sure to do a good job with the first coat in case I wanted only one coat.  I actually liked the streakiness of the metallic paint because it had that distressed kind of look that my coffee table has if you remember from this post.  Plus, you can see the wood grain through the paint, which I also like.  If the paint was even and opaque, I think it would look more like it was spray painted and cheap.. even though this was by far the cheapest project I've done!

Final product.

Final product.

Streaky, distressedness.

Before.

After.

With the metallic paint being only about $5.50 and using only half of a container of it, this project costed me about $2.50.  It doesn't get any cheaper than that.  The plus side is that I got really excited about how the end tables turned out when I was done.  They fit in to the contemporary living room even though they were products of the 80s, like me.  What do you think?  It makes me want to refinish other pieces of furniture.