Foot rest, dinner table, drink table

We don't drink much coffee but we use our so-called "coffee table" for just about everything else. And we really missed having a table once we sold our old one and hadn't quite finished the new one. I told you last month about how bad my first attempt  at refinishing the table went--the sheen was uneven and splotchy and was rough in some spots and smooth in others (despite a lot of sanding).

I had no idea what to try next and after soliciting everyone for advice, decided to go with applying a regular oil-based primer with a brush to see if that would even out the texture of the spray paint. Time to tape the edges yet again (this makes 3 times). By that time, I was far too frustrated with the project to remember to take step-by-step pictures. After a coat of Sherwin Williams oil-based primer (which I bought 2 years ago for an as-yet-uncompleted project...), the texture was much more even.  We applied a second coat which I think was unnecessary, but between all of it, the table was looking much better..

To give credit where it's due, this idea can from the same friends who gave me the table--they'll figure into the blog more in an upcoming post too! Just like our parents, they are becoming regular, indispensable helpers here.

So two coats of oil-based primer and one night of drying later, I was ready to try again. Immediately it looked like the red was going to go on just as unevenly as the last two attempts. But then I tried something--I started spraying a thicker layer. Not so much that it dripped, but so that it accumulated into an actual coat of paint in one go, rather than the many thin passes I had been doing. It seemed to work. It took more spray paint than I predicted (and entailed a rather frantic run to Home Depot between coats for more), but the texture vanished.

Time for the fast forward: After three rather heavy coats, a couple days of drying, some lightly applied gray stain to match the legs (which, remember, looked fine from day one), some distressing and some polycrylic,  we got our table!!!

You can see how the light shines much more softly and evenly than in our previous attempts. My guess is that the paint-brush primer helped reset our previous failures better and the thicker spray helped even it out. It would seem all my problems can be attributed to my poor spray paint technique on such a large surface (I was fine on the legs and have previously spray painted hardware with no problem). I'm glad I decided to try spray paint, especially on such a used and abused surface like a coffee table. It will be more durable by far than regular latex paint.

But it might be a really long time before I try to do it again.