If you want the grain to still show through you'll have to go with a black stain instead of a paint.
Room sounds really nice!! I picture a Vern from Trading Spaces type of room =)
Fate!
Men pay no heed to this post. This is a love story about decorating and bargain shopping. :heart
So, we're finally out of the 2-bedroom apartment (praise the gods!) and into a 3-bedroom house ... what to do with that 3rd bedroom? Answer: It will be a guest room / craft room. Next question, how to decorate?
This is the last room in the house that has mismatched furniture. Thankfully after 9 years of adulthood I finally have matching furniture in every other room.
To remedy this last room of mismatched hand-me-downs and yard-sale finds, I decided I would paint them all black ... head board for the twin bed I inherited from Grandmother (the same one I slept on through my entire childhood *happy sigh*), chest of drawers with shelf hutch on top I got for $15 at a yard sale, dresser that was Rob's in his first bachelor pad, and a night stand that his parents donated.
8 cans of spray paint later, it's all black and looks fabulous. I bought new drawer pulls for everything in brushed nickel so the pieces really look like they match.
The walls are a medium taupe color and all I had left to choose were bed linens and accessories. I decide that with taupe and black, going with red and ivory accents would be really classy. My inspriation is a room I saw in the Pottery Barn catalog. Of course, I can't afford Pottery Barn linens, but I figured I could keep my eyes open for bargains, as red seems to be the 'in' color for linens nowadays, and ivory is a staple that wont be hard to find. I thought I could probably splurge on some red and ivory toille fabric for accent pillows after I find sheets and blankets (the easy part), and a coverlet (the hard part).
A very happy ending to the story today ... I was in Target to buy toilet paper and decided to breeze past the clearance shelves. The pickings were slim and I almost missed my treasure. A bulk 24 pack of TP under my arm, I'm about to leave the aisle when a flash of red catches my eye. I pause, back up, and reach for a shabby plastic bag that's been taped back together a few times ... OMG, it's a solid red twin-sized quilt, almost identical to the one I saw in Pottery Barn and *gasp* the happy orange sticker says IT'S ON CLEARANCE FOR $9.99!
:clap *ANGELS SING* :yay *HALLELUJAH*
Fate does exist.
Addi
20 years ago
Just Erin
20 years ago
Gilae, I used Rust-Oleum Painter's Touch. It's just under $3 at Home Depot, and I'm sure at comparable prices elsewhere. There are cheaper spray paints out there ($1 to $2 per can), but I wanted to get a quality paint that coated well, was durable, and less likely to drip while spraying. It's not completely drip-proof, but I found it to be thicker than other spray paints, so it only started to run when I went over one area too many times wet.
If your coffee table has no wood grain texture to it (i.e. it's been sanded completely smooth), this is not the paint for you because it's a solid black paint and coats very well. The furniture I painted had a nice subtle tactile wood grain texture to it, so you can still see that a bit even painted. If solid black is what you want, you could probably get away with 2 to 3 cans of paint in two coats.
If your coffee table is smooth and you want to stain it with a black stain as Addi suggested, you'll have to give it a good heavy sanding first to get rid of any polyurethane, as you can't stain over top of that. Sand with a medium grit sandpaper first, then a fine grit sandpaper, then clean with mineral spirits. Let the table dry completely after the mineral spirits, and give the table a rub-down with tack cloth to get rid of any dust before you stain (it's like sticky cheese cloth, you can find it wherever they sell stain).
I don't reccomend stains that have a built-in polyurethane if this is your first time refinishing furniture. They are not forgiving to mistakes because they tack-up quickly, and don't allow much control over intensity of your color. Instead, apply your stain with a soft cloth, allow to dry between coats until it's as dark as you want it, then apply 3 coats of clear polyurethane, lightly sanding and using tack-cloth between coats.
It's a lengthy process, but the sense of satisfaction and accomplishment when you are finished is very gratifying. I refinished 2 other pieces of furniture I got from my grandparents last year and I'm really happy with them.
Let me know if you have any other questions. I swear I'm just like Amy Wynn on Trading Spaces. I'm your handy-girl if you need tips on anything!
If your coffee table has no wood grain texture to it (i.e. it's been sanded completely smooth), this is not the paint for you because it's a solid black paint and coats very well. The furniture I painted had a nice subtle tactile wood grain texture to it, so you can still see that a bit even painted. If solid black is what you want, you could probably get away with 2 to 3 cans of paint in two coats.
If your coffee table is smooth and you want to stain it with a black stain as Addi suggested, you'll have to give it a good heavy sanding first to get rid of any polyurethane, as you can't stain over top of that. Sand with a medium grit sandpaper first, then a fine grit sandpaper, then clean with mineral spirits. Let the table dry completely after the mineral spirits, and give the table a rub-down with tack cloth to get rid of any dust before you stain (it's like sticky cheese cloth, you can find it wherever they sell stain).
I don't reccomend stains that have a built-in polyurethane if this is your first time refinishing furniture. They are not forgiving to mistakes because they tack-up quickly, and don't allow much control over intensity of your color. Instead, apply your stain with a soft cloth, allow to dry between coats until it's as dark as you want it, then apply 3 coats of clear polyurethane, lightly sanding and using tack-cloth between coats.
It's a lengthy process, but the sense of satisfaction and accomplishment when you are finished is very gratifying. I refinished 2 other pieces of furniture I got from my grandparents last year and I'm really happy with them.
Let me know if you have any other questions. I swear I'm just like Amy Wynn on Trading Spaces. I'm your handy-girl if you need tips on anything!
Just Erin
20 years ago
Gilae, I used Rust-Oleum Painter's Touch. It's just under $3 at Home Depot, and I'm sure at comparable prices elsewhere. There are cheaper spray paints out there ($1 to $2 per can), but I wanted to get a quality paint that coated well, was durable, and less likely to drip while spraying. It's not completely drip-proof, but I found it to be thicker than other spray paints, so it only started to run when I went over one area too many times wet.
If your coffee table has no wood grain texture to it (i.e. it's been sanded completely smooth), this is not the paint for you because it's a solid black paint and coats very well. The furniture I painted had a nice subtle tactile wood grain texture to it, so you can still see that a bit even painted. If solid black is what you want, you could probably get away with 2 to 3 cans of paint in two coats.
If your coffee table is smooth and you want to stain it with a black stain as Addi suggested, you'll have to give it a good heavy sanding first to get rid of any polyurethane, as you can't stain over top of that. Sand with a medium grit sandpaper first, then a fine grit sandpaper, then clean with mineral spirits. Let the table dry completely after the mineral spirits, and give the table a rub-down with tack cloth to get rid of any dust before you stain (it's like sticky cheese cloth, you can find it wherever they sell stain).
I don't reccomend stains that have a built-in polyurethane if this is your first time refinishing furniture. They are not forgiving to mistakes because they tack-up quickly, and don't allow much control over intensity of your color. Instead, apply your stain with a soft cloth, allow to dry between coats until it's as dark as you want it, then apply 3 coats of clear polyurethane, lightly sanding and using tack-cloth between coats.
It's a lengthy process, but the sense of satisfaction and accomplishment when you are finished is very gratifying. I refinished 2 other pieces of furniture I got from my grandparents last year and I'm really happy with them.
Let me know if you have any other questions. I swear I'm just like Amy Wynn on Trading Spaces. I'm your handy-girl if you need tips on anything!
If your coffee table has no wood grain texture to it (i.e. it's been sanded completely smooth), this is not the paint for you because it's a solid black paint and coats very well. The furniture I painted had a nice subtle tactile wood grain texture to it, so you can still see that a bit even painted. If solid black is what you want, you could probably get away with 2 to 3 cans of paint in two coats.
If your coffee table is smooth and you want to stain it with a black stain as Addi suggested, you'll have to give it a good heavy sanding first to get rid of any polyurethane, as you can't stain over top of that. Sand with a medium grit sandpaper first, then a fine grit sandpaper, then clean with mineral spirits. Let the table dry completely after the mineral spirits, and give the table a rub-down with tack cloth to get rid of any dust before you stain (it's like sticky cheese cloth, you can find it wherever they sell stain).
I don't reccomend stains that have a built-in polyurethane if this is your first time refinishing furniture. They are not forgiving to mistakes because they tack-up quickly, and don't allow much control over intensity of your color. Instead, apply your stain with a soft cloth, allow to dry between coats until it's as dark as you want it, then apply 3 coats of clear polyurethane, lightly sanding and using tack-cloth between coats.
It's a lengthy process, but the sense of satisfaction and accomplishment when you are finished is very gratifying. I refinished 2 other pieces of furniture I got from my grandparents last year and I'm really happy with them.
Let me know if you have any other questions. I swear I'm just like Amy Wynn on Trading Spaces. I'm your handy-girl if you need tips on anything!
Guest
20 years ago
People watch Trading Spaces? HGTV, people!
Guest
20 years ago
People watch Trading Spaces? HGTV, people!
Gilae
20 years ago
My table is a cheapy one that happens to have a nice shape/style to it...but the colour doesn't go with anything. The grain sticks out a bit but I THINK that sanding it might be a bad idea because it's like...wood plated...for lack of better word. I'd like to be able to see the texture of the grain but not necessarily see the colours of the grain (in other words all black) so correct me if I'm wrong, but that means the Rust-Oleum would work best?
Gilae
20 years ago
My table is a cheapy one that happens to have a nice shape/style to it...but the colour doesn't go with anything. The grain sticks out a bit but I THINK that sanding it might be a bad idea because it's like...wood plated...for lack of better word. I'd like to be able to see the texture of the grain but not necessarily see the colours of the grain (in other words all black) so correct me if I'm wrong, but that means the Rust-Oleum would work best?
Temprah
20 years ago
well if what you have is a wood veneer (a thin paper like layer of wood usually over particle board or cheaper wood) then sanding it could be OK. I would guess you could use a fine grit paper to remove some of the finish layer and expose the wood to stain / paint it. But if what you have is like a foil overlay on particle board (a lot of Ikea furniture is like that for example) then sanding it would be bad and you'd have to use an opaque paint.
Temprah
20 years ago
well if what you have is a wood veneer (a thin paper like layer of wood usually over particle board or cheaper wood) then sanding it could be OK. I would guess you could use a fine grit paper to remove some of the finish layer and expose the wood to stain / paint it. But if what you have is like a foil overlay on particle board (a lot of Ikea furniture is like that for example) then sanding it would be bad and you'd have to use an opaque paint.
Gilae
20 years ago
I think it's a wood veneer. I didn't actually buy the table...my aunt gave it to me thinking I might be able to do something with it. It fits well with the room except it's totally the wrong colour.
Gilae
20 years ago
I think it's a wood veneer. I didn't actually buy the table...my aunt gave it to me thinking I might be able to do something with it. It fits well with the room except it's totally the wrong colour.