It's doable...second-hand side table revamp

I'm a newlywed.  And we've been homeowners less than a year.  These 2 things combined equals a lack of many household items and lack of furniture.  Therefore, I have turned to creativity.  Regardless of your situation, you can save quite a few bucks by buying items second hand and tailoring them to your desires.

For example... here is our make shift side table before. Gross. But... with just a couple of bucks... here is our AFTER!

(Wanna know more about the pictures? On the left you see Mr. Wonderful and my's first Thanksgiving.  On the right you'll see Mr. Wonderful and my brother in law sword fighting with umbrellas... What do they say? Inside every man is a 5 year old boy? Yes. That about sums it up.)

But where I am going with these crazy colors you ask?  This, my friends, is my long term goal for our family room... minus the 'sea' theme

Source... please feel free to drool with me

So, back to the side table.  I picked up 1 lamp and 2 frames from Goodwill.  The lamp was $3 and the frames were $.99 each (yay!)  We also picked up an end table there that was originally from Target but was selling at Goodwill, new in box for $30 (a slight splurge but worth it).  The wicker basket (for blankets and throws) I got from a garage sale last summer for a couple of bucks.

My culprits before:

I then purchased/ found in my house:

- 1 can of Rust-oleum Painter's touch Gloss: Colonial Red, about $3 each

- 2 cans of Rust-oleum Painter's touch Satin: Aqua, about $3 each

- 1 lamp shade from Walmart for $9.50

- something to spray paint your items on... think newspaper, old thick blankets, garbage bags etc.

- painter's tape to cover parts you don't want painted

STEPS:

1) Use a light sandpaper to rough up your frames and lamp.  It needs to be a light grit, you don't want to dig holes in your items!  Go over all surfaces that you plan to paint, this will help it to stick and help ensure that it won't 'bead' while you are painting.

2) Remove the glass and back from the frames and cover anything on the frames and lamp that you don't want painted.  I taped a bag around the cord of the lamp and covered the top brass area in painter's tape.

3) We are going to paint the backside first... do as I say not as I do here, I learned the hard way and painted the front first as you can see in my pictures.  Find discrete places to put the push pins or sewing pins to hold your frames off the surface. (You'll appreciate this when you don't end up with a nasty line around your frame when you peel it from the paper it is sitting on!)  And you want to paint the back first so that when you do the front side you can paint over those little push pin holes to make them even more discrete!

4) Time to spray paint those bad boys!  Now, don't get carried away.  Read the instructions and don't go too slow, you'll end up with runs.  Start with the edges and then do the surface... that will lead to a smoother finish.  Let it fully dry before you do another coat.  I did several coats.

5) Let's multitask here... your lamp is easier and yet harder.  Depending on what type of lamp you have, you may or may not need the push pins... I didn't.  However, you can't help but to have paint go everywhere because you are spraying from all different directions (since it's round) so make sure there is lots of paper if you care about the ground you are painting on.  (Sorry honey for our now tealish garage floor!)  Let dry and repeat coats as necessary.

6) Back to the frames.  Once that side looks good flip it over, place your pins, and paint the front.

That's it!  The project time takes several hours because of drying time... but the active time is relative short.  

Comments

[Heather H]

This is great, easy, and so cute! I also love the aqua and red colors :)

[Crystal (Chica)]

Thanks friend! I have a target rug in my online shopping cart just waiting to come to my house!!

[trade plumbing supplies]

This was another edition of DIY project. This really looks great but it is not expensive.