My Latest Project

I was getting bored with our livingroom- It was much too brown, and I hated how we kept stacking our books/magazines behind the recliner for lack of a better place to put them.  So I started brainstorming.  I picked up some blue decorative pillows at target, and then started looking around for a blue end-table we could use to hide our books, and maybe something to put our remotes on top of.
This is what I ended up doing:

$10 end table from DI (gotta love DI!)  I wasn't too concerned that it looked well-used, since my plan was to antique it anyway.  I should have taken a picture of the inside- that was the real selling point.  Wallpapered shelving from the 70s :)

I bought some paint and supplies at Home Depot, and a basket at Target.
I learned that my least favorite part of restoring furniture is cleaning it.  Yuck.  I coated the entire thing with a clear finish, then painted 2 coats of this light blue/gray color.  Took some sandpaper to roughen it up a bit, and painted the handles white.  Painted the inside blue to match, and generously coated the whole thing with 2 more layers of finishing spray.
 This is how it turned out!  Thanks to my friend Emily and her sister for their wonderful directions on antiquing furniture.  Couldn't have done it without you!

So $40 later I have this fabulous end table, and a little bit of color and cleanliness have been added to our living area.