I realize that this blog post is coming late, as in almost a month late. I also realize that I haven’t posted in a very long time, at least not until this month. 2013 saw many mishaps like this for me, rushing in to do things and then letting them slide to the wayside. If my craft stash has anything to say about it, I have many balls of yarn that haven’t been knitted, many thrifted pieces that haven’t been sewn, and a dozen or more blog posts that haven’t been written.
So this year, I decided on a New Year’s keyword. This is different than a New Year’s resolution, mainly because it’s not a resolution. It’s a theme. A codex to live by. Something to keep me motivated because I’m trying to change my life, but won’t guilt me into doing it because I’m notoriously procrastinating.
This year’s keyword is balance.
Balance — How to Paint Furniture Like A Pro
I’m not talking about the kind of balance that you need to perform great feats of physical prowess, like my youngest does on the barres and beams for gymnastics. Although one of my goals this year is to get in better physical shape by stretching every morning. This is the kind of mind balance that I so desperately need.
Balance means more than just getting rid of the clutter in my house (my actual New Year’s resolution) or trying to juggle the various responsibilities of my house. It means fitting more into my schedule because I’ve put some thought into my schedule. It means making sure that I haven’t over-committed to any one project. But most importantly, it means letting go of being perfect.
To start off the year with some grandeur, I’m introducing Feng Shui into my house, or at least my skimpy version of it. Three important rules here. First, no clutter. Second, only keep what you love. Third, everything balances itself out.
After moving things around in my living room, I decided that I absolutely hated my desk being in the knock-out. Much of the reason for this, even though it was a terribly convenient place for a desk, is that my back was turned to the door. (I later learned that in Feng Shui, that is some bad juice.)
I had a table in the kitchen that was not being used at all. I hated this table. It was also damaged. So I moved it into the living room and it already was much better.
So today, we are going to paint this piece of furniture like a pro!
Ready?
Here we go … okay, that joke was lame.
This is a picture of the table top, damaged.
I decided to paint the table, but only the top portion, so it would be two-toned. Here, I removed the glass.
Taped off the sides of the table.
Sanded it pretty well with a medium coarse piece of sandpaper, 100 grade. Oh my goodness, was it ever cold out in the middle of January!
Wiped it down.
This was the tricky part. I purchased a can of quality primer, but regular paint is way too thick for furniture. So I ended up watering it down. The trick with painting furniture, as I’ve learned, is to do three very thin coats of primer followed by three very thin coats of paint.
Here’s the primer after the first coat. You should be able to still see the table.
And after the second coat, you can still see the table, but less of it.
After the first layer of paint.
The second layer of paint.
And here is the final result.
My photos might not look very good since that area is always bright, but as you can see, the third coat of paint does the trick nicely.
And we did some more Feng Shui here, the whole balancing thing. Notice the double layout of everything. My Chinese Guardian Angel is very proud of me today.
A closer upper. One of the benefits to using thin layers of paint is that you should still see the wood grain of the table.
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