DIY Painted and Gold Dipped End Table Makeover

I've made it my mission to decorate my living room on a TIGHT budget.  We've lived in our home almost three years and I'm finally getting around to getting to this much neglected space.  I'm making slow progress.  I added a new little piece of furniture, a small accent table.  This console table was a $3 D.I. find and knew that this small table would be a great addition next to my sofa or an antique chair.  With a little DIY, work, patience, and a lot of coats of primer and paint, I was able to turn this little end table from sad to rad!

I forgot to take a picture of the table in its original state.  Here's a picture of what it pretty much looked like.  When I saw this table I Immediately remembered some pictures I pinned on Pinterest of how I wanted to makeover this table. Check out the photo inspiration here and here.  I knew this was the fate of this little side table.

When I got it home, I realized that there was some damage to the little table.  It's really important when you buy used furniture to check and make sure there's no significant damage to the piece.  You can tell that one of the legs was a small dogs favorite chew toy.  

The first part I needed to do was to patch up the dog bite marks on one of the legs. 

 I used this product Minwax Stainable Wood Filler.  It's really easy to use and is the texture of putty and sand.  

I spread on a layer of the wood filler with my finger and smoothed it out on the surface. It's not going to look very smooth and that's ok.  Do your best.  Let it dry for a hour, and then take some light sandpaper and lightly sand the area, and get off the chunks.  I did this three times.  

The next step was to prime that baby!  I used my favorite primer B-I-N Shellac Base Primer & Sealer Stain Killer.  Because the tabletop was laminate and the legs were made of wood, this primer works on both.

REMEMBER, you cannot clean shellac primer off of your brush with water.  And don't use foam brushes, they dissolve in the shellac paint.  The only way you can clean off the shellac primer from the brush is using Ammonia, you can buy a half gallon of this stuff at any grocery story for around $2.  I poured about a cup of Ammonia into a cup, and when I was done painting each coat of primer, I stuck the brush into the cup, and let it the Ammonia dissolve the shellac, do this for about ten minutes, and then rinse the brush off with water.  Ta da all clean!

Back to the table.  I painted three coats of the primer.  Each coat, I let it dry a couple of hours.  After I painted the primer on the table, the fun part starts.  I recently received the newest Crate and Barrel catalog and while flipping through it, I saw this picture below.  I knew immediately that the teal color on the wall was the inspiration I needed for my little table. 

I headed over to Lowe's and looked at their paint chips and found a color that was comparable, it's the Valspar Classic Teal color in Satin.  The best part was that it was around $3.  I knew this 7 oz container would be enough paint to finish my table.

Guess what!?  In the November issue of Better Homes and Garden there's a coupon from Lowe's for a free sample of paint from their Valspar Fall Collection!  I was really excited I could use this on another project!

Because this paint color is really dark, I wanted to make sure every crook and cranny was covered, so I did three coats.  

After all of the the paint layers had dried, I took a ruler and measure how much of the leg I wanted to be painted gold. I measured around six inches.  I marked the leg with pencil. I took  Frog Tape and taped around the pencil mark.  I took some newspaper and wrapped each leg around it and securing it with more Frog Tape to make sure that none of the gold spray paint got onto the teal paint. 

 I used the Valspar Metallic Gold spray paint I had leftover from my Vintage Metal Chairs Makeover project I did several months ago.  I sprayed three layers of the gold paint.  As soon as I was done spraying, I took the Frog Tape off so I could ensure there wasn't any drips. Make sure that the Frog Tape is even all the way around.  You can tell on one of the legs, it's not perfect.  Oh well, no one will notice!  

Then I applied three coats of Minwax Satin Polycrylic Protective Finish, to protect the paint from chipping and wear.  It also gave the table a nice glossy look. 

Here is what it looks like with some knick knacks on it.  I originally planned on putting it next to this antique chair that belonged to McKay's grandparents, but who knows, I might change my mind and put it somewhere else. I'm planning on reupholstering this here in the near future.  

Then I decided to put it next to the only nice piece of furniture in our home.  Everyday I'm reminded by all the crap I want to do to my house, so sad it takes a lot of money and time.  Hopefully in the next couple years we'll be able to replace the carpet and laminate with REAL hardwood floors and paint the walls a more more pearly white.  Oh what a dream that would be.  

The funny thing is, my favorite thing on the table is the rabbit fur my husband bought while at Scout Camp when he was 12.  I randomly found it while cleaning out some stuff out of our shed. I love great finds like this.  I think it adds some nice texture.

I hope you enjoyed this little end table makeover.  I really like the modern touch to the room.  Hopefully this will inspire you to not be afraid to decorate your home.  It can be scary, I'm reminded of how scared I am to make a stupid mistake, but the great thing is that there's no mistakes, almost everything can be redone if needed.