Two Queen Anne Side Tables

In our last post, we talked about the spray-paint-everything phase we went through when we first started refinishing furniture. We would buy furniture for cheap from garage sales and thrift shops, and then quickly spray paint them before sealing with two or three layers of poly. I picked up two Queen Anne-style side tables from Goodwill that I wanted to refinish for my new (old) apartment living room. Just as with the heirloom dresser, these two tables were sprayed a deep, dark walnut and the hardware was sprayed a metallic silver. We thought that an appropriate follow-up to our last post would be to show you how we transformed these two Queen Annes.

These tables are great because they're nice and deep, providing a lot of surface area for lamps, picture frames, and whatever else you might want to place on them! After using these two tables in my living room, I brought them upstairs and used them as nigh stands for two years. They're definitely great pieces of furniture, but they were definitely ugly! I didn't like the hardware - it looks too formal and feminine, and just OLD. I knew that I wanted to replace the hardware when I refinished these two pieces.

We painted these two tables in Country Chic's "hurricane," a warm, grayish blue. We also painted the insides of the drawers in "vanilla frosting" to cover the spray paint that had made it inside when the tables were first painted. Then we lightly distressed the edges to give the tables some character. After the painting was done, the tables got two coats of polyurethane to seal and protect.

The finished tables! We were pleased with the new look of these pieces, and were happy to given them a modern update. The old, outdated drawer pulls are gone, and the details of the tables are highlighted by the new, fresh paint color. How do you think these two pieces look? They would look great in a living room or bedroom!  

The Heirloom Dresser

When we first started refinishing furniture a few years back, we had a very different idea of what "refinishing" meant. To us, it basically involved spray painting everything and then covering it in two or three coats of polyurethane. It was fast, cheap, and it made trying to furnish my very first apartment a relatively easy task. I went to Goodwill almost every day on my lunch break to search for  great pieces of furniture that I could get for relatively cheap. I spent less than $100 and bought a very large dresser I planned on using as an entertainment center, two end tables, and a coffee table - all of which were solid wood and very well-built.

For my bedroom, my parents had given me a hand-me-down dresser, which was gifted to my grandparents for their wedding. The dresser is solid wood with dovetail jointing and wood veneer. During my must-spray-paint-everything phase, I had painted this piece a deep, dark blackish-brown. I kept the original hardware, but spray painted them metallic silver.

The hardware had worn through the years, and because I didn't seal the paint when I had originally sprayed them, they were starting to show their age because the paint was chipping off. Even though I love the patina on the hardware, I didn't like the overall style of the pulls and decided that I was going to replace them.

There are a lot of great new products, like milk paint, chalk / mineral paint, and gel stains available these days, and now I'm over my spray-paint-everything phase. We love the ease of chalk / mineral paints, and have mentioned our favorite brand, Country Chic, several times on this blog. For this piece, I wanted to choose a color that was bright and fresh, but that had a good balance of masculine and feminine vibes. I chose "backyard picnic," which I had originally seen on a dresser for sale at Carriage House Consignment, because I liked the bright tone but the color itself reminded me of the Adirondack and Catskill mountains of upstate New York, where our grandparents had grown up and where we had spent our childhood summers. I thought that this color would compliment the dark hardware that I had in mind.

After three coats of "backyard picnic," I lightly distressed the piece so that the dark spray paint underneath highlighted the clean, straight lines of this piece. I covered the entire dresser in three coats of polyurethane for protection. For the hardware, I choose cup pulls with a "tumbled dark gunmetal" finish, to add a little more masculinity to the piece.

The finished pieced. I love the color, it makes the room brighter and seemingly changes hues throughout the day. In the morning, it's a bright, fresh green and at night and in darker light, it appears to take on more of an evergreen / deep turquoise color. I love the cup pulls and the subtle distressing, which accentuates the clean lines of the piece. I'm glad that I was able to take my grandparent's heirloom dresser and bring it into 2015, and I'm excited to keep this piece in the family for another 70 years. Do you have a hand-me-down piece of furniture that reminds you of family? Does it need a facelift to be brought into the modern world? Comment below! 

The Thomasville Side Table

I picked this table up at a local thrift shop for $20 - it's a Thomasville, has four drawers and dovetail joints. The top was in a bit of disrepair, but the price was too good to pass up. My plan was simple: sand and re-stain the top of the piece and paint the base. I'm a big fan of the two-tone look that seems to be very popular right now, and this was the perfect piece for it. I wanted to keep the original hardware because I thought it looked great, but I wasn't a fan of the bright, shiny brass finish.

This table is solidly built, so dismantling it for painting and sanding and staining took just a bit of effort. I opted for what's quickly becoming my go-to paint color: Country Chic's vanilla frosting. I'm not sure what it is with this hue, but it goes with EVERYTHING. It's light and white enough to be neutral and fit in almost any room, but warm enough to feel cozy and relaxed.

Here is the table after two coats of paint. I went for three to ensure complete coverage. After I was finished painting, I simply sanded the top of the piece and finished it with two coats each of lightly-tinted stain and polyurethane. I wanted to highlight the great detailing along the edges, so I lightly sanded the corners of the drawers. All that was left was to spray paint the original pulls an antiqued bronze. Rustoleum is the BEST spray paint, in my opinion. It covers everything and is reasonably priced.

Here's the finished product! If you look closely, you can see the light distressing around the edges. I even distressed the hardware after the spray paint had dried so that a bit of the shiny brass finish was peeking through the heavier bronze tones of the paint. After a few coats of finishing wax, I was done!

Leave us a comment below if you love this Thomasville side table! This piece is currently for sale, so contact us at blessingdesignhouse@gmail.com if you're interested in purchasing it, or if you have any questions regarding the piece.