The Little Black Table

Continuing on with my personal challenge to tackle all the would-be projects that have been building up in our basement, this week I’m going back to basics with this simple little furniture flip.

This little guy was a RE find (RE is our local thrift store and I love, love, LOVE it!) and I almost left without him!

There was just something about the cool geometric cut-out sides that wouldn’t let me out the door without him in tow. He wasn’t in great shape, but neither am I so I try not to judge (JUST kidding I’m judgemental AF). I figured what’s one more project to add to the list?

(Side bar: how incredibly annoying is it that I’m using a pronoun to describe an inanimate object? It’s so cutesy I could vom! )

Fast forward five months and he’s finally been given the Pretty Woman treatment, if Richard Gere had spray painted Julia Roberts with two coats of black, high gloss spray paint (10/10 would watch that movie).

As I already mentioned, he was in rough shape, so after cleaning him thoroughly I applied wood filler to any super obvious or gaping nicks, but didn’t get too picky. I also reattached some loose trim pieces with wood glue and clamps. I knew he was not going to look like a brand new, pristine table no matter what I did to him and I wasn’t interested in investing tons of time.

I also had to pry the wooden drawer pull off with my hammer because it was half busted and not salvageable. Prying things apart is strangely satisfying. I burned the broken pull in our wood stove and made the table watch while I did it. #drama

I decided he needed a little height, so I attached some basic 3×3 wooden furniture legs to the bottom that I had laying around in the garage. I added some scrap 2x4s to the bottom with wood glue and screws because the inset would have otherwise rendered the legs utterly too short. I am currently obsessed with adding legs to furniture.

Then it was just a matter of attaching the top plates and screwing in the legs.

I sanded the patches of wood fill down smooth and drilled the hole for the new drawer pull as a final step before painting.

You will notice that I didn’t bother trying to smooth out the front of the drawer. As I already mentioned, I put wood fill in some places that were very obviously needing it, but I didn’t go too nuts. I don’t mind that the table looks a little beat up: it fits in great with everything else in my house.

I really wanted a super matte finish, but in my heart of hearts I knew that would not be practical since I had to be able to wipe the table down a lot. In the end I went with two coats of high gloss black spray paint. I almost always, always, always use Rustoleum spray paint if I can: it’s my favorite.

After the paint was dry, I installed the new drawer pull (an old nickle one I found in my junk pile that I painted with liquid gold leaf) and BOOM. My little table is finished.

I actually don’t mind the high gloss finish as much as I thought I would! It definitely shows off every little imperfection but I think that adds to the charm! Well done, Allison. Well done. (Congratulating yourself in the third person is the new hot thing, look it up if you don’t believe me.)

I still can’t decide where he’s going to hang out permanently, so for now he’s in Matt’s office being used as plant landing pad.

I can’t wait to to show you guys my next project! It is also a furniture flip and it’s FLIPPIN’ amazing! (See what I did there???)

Until next time! Stay classy, Kentville.