About 10 years ago, I bought these cheap (but ugly) end tables. They are sturdy but they are not made of real wood. When I first bought them, we didn’t have much extra money, and then we started having kids. So refinishing them got put on the back burner.
Well now our youngest is 2 years old and I’ve been slowly working on updating things around our house (on a budget). They function just fine…they just don’t look great. Here is how I refinished my end table on a budget.
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A few months ago, I decided to refinish both end tables. One is in the living room in the basement and the other is in the living room on our main level. I decided to refinish them with different colors to see what I liked better.
I have refinished several items around our house, but I am still experimenting with different products to see what I like better and what seems to be the most durable.
The whole project cost me very little to complete as I already had most of the items at my house. The tables aren’t very big. So, it didn’t take me long to paint it for each coat… the drying and waiting between coats was what took the longest… and was the most agonizing part because I was just excited to get it done!
Here is what they looked like before:
Here is what the first one looked like after I refinished it:
Here are the items I used for the project… I already had most of these items. So this project cost me very little to complete.
- Several foam brushes
- Paint brush
- Minwax Polyshades in Tudor (for the first table) and Walnut (for the second table)
- Rust-oleum Chalk Paint in Linen white (for the first table) and
Aged Gray (for second table) - Rust-oleum Protective Top Coat in Matte Clear
- Sandpaper of various grit- I used 320 and 400.
Here is how I completed this project:
- I lightly hand sanded the table and legs.
- Wiped the tables with a lint-free cloth.
- I started with the top because I was worried about it dripping onto the legs. I painted the top with Minwax Polyshades and used a foam brush. It’s a stain and polyurethane mixed. I used Tudor for the shade for this project. It took 5 coats to get the color that I wanted, but I am happy with how it turned out. I let each coat dry for about 6-8 hours before I applied the second coat.
- Between coats, I used 320 grit sandpaper and very lightly sanded the top of the table by hand. I wiped the table with a lint-free cloth after each sanding.
- Once I was satisfied with how the top turned out, I painted the legs. I used Rust-oleum Linen White Chalk paint. It took 2 coats for the legs.
- Once the chalk paint was fully dry, I put 2 coats of Rust-oleum protective top coat in Matte Clear.
- I let it all dry for a full 24 hours after I was finished and brought it into the house.
I did this project about 6 months ago and so far it has held up great!
Second End Table
For the second end table, I started with painting the whole table with Rust-oleum Aged Gray Chalk Paint. I distressed the edges of the table with 400 grit sandpaper. It was like that for a couple months, but I wasn’t satisfied with how it looked… so I lightly sanded the top, wiped it with a lint free cloth, and I put 2 light coats of Minwax Polyshades in Walnut. I love the character that it added!
I have gotten several compliments on both tables and they have both turned out well! They look so much better!
If you like this post, check out my post on my bedroom makeover.