Mid Century Hall Table Makeover
I had an entire post written about this Mid Century Hall Table Makeover and somehow I lost the lot when I came back to edit it. Frustrated isn't half of what I feel right now. The life of a blogger I guess. These little glitches always come up to keep you on your toes that's for sure.Anyway, let me start from the beginning again since you didn't get to read my first version. I bought this hall table from Kmart in the early years of our marriage for something ridiculous like $20 on clearance. That was way before Kmart turned uber hip and cool. It was sturdy and well made and my mum also picked one up as well. This table is hers that she no longer wanted and the one I bought I ended up doing up and selling after I had no need for it anymore in our house. I don't like to waste furniture and if I no longer have a need for it I try to upcycle it and sell it for someone to get enjoyment out of. Truth be told I had put this hall table under the house after not knowing what to do with it and how to give it a new look. I think it has been under there throughout our entire family bearing years - our oldest is now 5 so you can get the gist of it.
What inspired me to drag it out from under the house was an Instagram post on the Feast & Watson page. It was a competition called the Relove Project that was running for the month of August that allowed you to enter a piece that you have Reloved & Recycled into something new. There was a prize of 1 of 3 $1000 gift cards so that was a nice incentive to enter. I came across the comp in its last week so I knew I had to make a jump on a piece if I wanted to enter. I did a sweep of my local op shops to see if anything took my fancy but I couldn't find anything I liked. I then raided my store of furniture under the house and found this hall table and the plan came together. I wanted to do something other than my usual rustic, french country style. It was time to make a statement.
My vision for this piece was to bring it to the latest trend of Mid Century Modern. Refinishing the top and restain with a walnut finish and paint the base with an on trend blue paint colour.
The first step in revamping this hall table was to remove the drawer knobs and remove the drawers from the table. The next step was to sand the top back to bare wood. I used 80 grit sand paper on a orbital sander to remove the old stain back to the bare wood underneath. Once I had the top back to bare wood I then changed the sandpaper to 120 grit to smooth the top back and then to 240 grit for a smooth finish. I gave the base a light sand with 120 grit sandpaper to remove the smooth surface to allow the paint to stick to it. I then gave the entire piece a wipe over with a damp rag to remove all of the dust off it.
The next step was to stain the top using Feast & Watson Proof Tint in Walnut. I used the tint neat but if you are wanting a lighter and reduced tint colour the Proof Tint Colour Reducer is recommended to be used in conjunction with the proof tint especially on bare wood. Since I used the tint neat on bare wood the colour becomes quite dark quickly – which was what I was after. I applied the stain using a brush and then used a lint free rag to wipe it off after a few minutes. I let the stained top dry overnight before proceeding to paint the base.
The next day the top was covered with newspaper and taped into place to stop getting paint on it while painting the base. The base of the table was painted with a stain blocker undercoat to stop the dark stain underneath from coming through. Once that was dried I then applied the top coat colour – Dulux Harpoon using a spray gun. I applied two coats of the final coat leaving an hour between each coat.
Once the base coat had dried overnight the newspaper was removed from the top and two coats of clear satin varnish were applied to the top to protect it. A light sand with 240 grit paper was applied to the top in between each coat. Once that had dried I then added new brass knobs to the drawer fronts and fitted the drawers back into place. You can view the items that I used to get this look at the end of this post. I will link to all of them there.
Didn't she turn out beautiful? This is one piece I was smitten with when I finished it. The paint colour, stained top and knobs all worked together so beautifully. I finished this piece just in time to enter it into the Feast & Watson Relove Project competition. I think I had a day or two to spare. I had so much fun styling and photographing this piece. So bright and colourful yet sophisticated. This colour Harpoon by Dulux was completely out of my comfort zone as it is not something I usually go for but I am so glad I chose it. The sheen and slight shimmer that it seems to have really gave the hall table some wow factor. So much so that in fact after a week of sweating it out waiting to hear the results from the Feast & Watson competition I got a little message letting me know that my hall table had been chosen as one of the three winners of the competition.
I was honoured and humbled to have been chosen as one of the winners as there were so many great entries. You can check them out here. It's created a fire in my belly to continue upcycling furniture (when I can find the time). I have been slowly making a stockpile of furniture to do up in the coming months so keep your eyes peeled on some exciting projects coming to the blog. I am in the midst of doing up a dollhouse at the moment. I am calling it my Fixer Upper Dollhouse as I am channelling my inner Joanna Gaines with the decorating and styling. If you want a closer sneak peak at what I am doing make sure you pop on over to my Instagram stories and see the updates of what I am doing with it as I go along.
I hope I've inspired you in some way to have another look at any furniture you might have sitting around your house that might need a little love and attention to make it something new and shiny again.
For those that would like to know all of the products that I used in this project see the list and appropriate links below. If you have any questions just leave a comment below and I will get back to you asap.
