Coffee Table Makeover DIY

A friend asked me to redo her coffee and end tables for her.  She loved the quality and durability of her tables, just wanted a new look.

I have never refinished furniture for anyone but myself.   I was a bit nervous, 

due to being a perfectionist.

I told her I would and I am glad I did.  She loves them.

I wanted to share with you the before and after.

Refinishing furniture is pretty easy and I hope that you will be encouraged to 

tackle a piece of furniture in your own time.

Before

After

Here are the end tables.

The cats loved hanging out on the furniture.  

Luckily she is a cat lover.

First I removed all hardware and drawers.

I decided to go ahead and strip the shiny gloss off instead of sanding it off.

If I feel it is going to take a lot of energy and sandy to take the finish off,

I will go ahead and strip it.

Below you can see about how much stripper I apply.

Use an old cheap paint brush.  It will be trash after your done with the stripping.

It only takes a couple of minutes for to see it start to work. 

Then I take a scraper and scrape as much off as possible.

It usually is pretty easy.

Below you can see how it is more dry looking, that is what you are looking for.

Below the left one is ready for paint.  The one on the right is almost ready, 

just needs a little more sanding.

After I have stripped off the finish I get the sander out.  I like to use a fine grade sand paper to keep from removing too much wood all at once. It's too easy to make a mistake and makes the surface too rough.

When the sand paper is worn out from the sanding, I use it to hand sand the hard to reach places.

Below the table has been stripped and sanded and is ready to be painted.

It has a dry or raw look.

I decided to not talk about the painting process in this post.

The post about the desk goes into more detail about painting.

My friend wanted the tables distressed.  I was happy about that.

Distressing is my favorite part of the whole process.  I love the 

character it gives and it helps hide imperfections.

When distressing I use a finer grade sand paper and hand sand it.

My arm gets quite the workout.  I have more control over the distressing this way.

You can save money refinishing old furniture. It's fun too!

I encourage you to take this challenge. Find an old piece that has nice structure and go for it!