let's make over this sad little coffee table that i rescued from the curb
i want to make it over into a much more modern version of itself
with maybe some restoration hardware or pottery barn vibes
if you're new here go ahead and tap that subscribe button my name is katie i am a
full-time furniture painter and refinisher i post a brand new video every single weekend with tons
of furniture flipping inspiration tips and tricks for all of you out there who are either starting
your own little furniture side hustle or maybe you just want to reimagine some of the furniture
in your own space like i said this little coffee table was kicked to the curb by one of
my neighbors either for trash or for someone like me to come and scoop up i normally steer clear of
coffee tables because they've never been great sellers for me but something about the lines of
this piece really drew me in i love the base and i think it's gonna make an awesome flip
i need to start out with a good clean like i do on all of my flips today i'm using some tsp
or trisodium phosphate which is a heavy duty degreaser and deglosser this is a chemical so
you want to make sure that you are wearing gloves while you're working with it and i'm just using a
little scrubby sponge to help me get down into all of those details especially on the base
as soon as i was done cleaning everything i went back with some clean clear water
and rinsed everything off just to make sure there was no residue left behind
after i let the table sit out in the sun for a few hours and dry out i was ready to start sanding i'm
actually going to be chemically stripping the top of this table to refinish it but i wanted to give
the top a really quick once over with some coarse 80 grit sandpaper
just to scratch up that thick varnish layer on top and let that chemical stripper really get
down in there and do its job a little bit better this is the stripper that i'm going to be using on
this table top it is not my favorite but it's what i was able to get my hands on for this project
unfortunately my battery died while i was recording myself stripping the table the first
time but luckily i didn't put enough stripper on the first layer and it didn't work so i need to
do a second pass and i can show you guys what i'm doing now with a cheap chip brush that i can just
toss when i'm done i spread a very liberal layer of this gel stripper over the top of the table
you need to use a lot more product than you could ever think is necessary and
it helps if you can keep it wet so once i was finished applying my second layer of stripper i
grabbed some plastic wrap and just put a layer of that over the stripper to keep it moist as it did
its thing and worked its magic again here you want to be really careful with this chemical stripper
it's really harsh on skin so i always wear chemical resistant gloves a long sleeve shirt
long-sleeve pants and some goggles to protect my eyes from any splashes this is a fast-acting
product so about 15 minutes later i could see that everything was bubbling up and coming away
so i grabbed a metal putty knife and started scraping away the varnish this is so satisfying
so i can't use that flat putty knife on the curved edges of this tabletop
so i grabbed some fine steel wool to use as a scouring pad to remove everything from these edges
once i had everything removed from the table top i grabbed a fresh pad of steel wool and
some mineral spirits this is going to neutralize the chemical reaction from
the stripper as well as just pick up any loose residue that is still on the table
this is what the table top looks like wet with mineral spirits
and then once it was dry it was not so pretty but that's okay i need to do some sanding now
you might be wondering why i didn't just start with my sander i do that quite often
but this table is a veneered surface and i was afraid that this veneer was
going to be really thin and i didn't want to risk blowing through the thin veneer
while i was trying to sand down the varnish and the stain with an aggressive grit of sandpaper so
by removing that tough layer first with the chemical stripper this allows me to come back
now with a much less aggressive 180 and then 220 grit sandpaper just to do a final smooth out
once again these curved edges need a little bit of extra help you could definitely sand stuff
like this by hand but today i'm using one of my surf prep foam abrasive pads
to really contour around those curves and prevent me from grinding anything flat
my design plan for this table is to do a white wash or gray wash i guess effect on the bare wood
top and then paint the base in a solid color so i kept my same foam abrasive on my surf prep sander
and just gave all of those details a really light scuff sand just to give my paint a little bit of
something to hold on to for the paint wash that i want to do on the top of this piece i'm using a
country chic paint in the color lazy linen this is a really cool toned very pale gray i added
a couple of dollops no precise measurements here of my paint into some water and mixed it up with
my brush and then i'm just going to brush my water down paint over the entire surface as soon as i
get the whole surface covered i'll come back with a lint-free rag and just remove any excess paint
or water that hasn't soaked down into the wood washes of chalk paint like this are honestly my
favorite way to get a stained effect on wood you can use literally any color under the sun you can
customize the opaqueness or transparency of your stain just by adding a little bit more paint or a
little bit more water you can layer colors you can layer coverage by doing a few coats it's a really
great way to get a stained wood effect out of a water-based low voc eco-friendly product instead
of using stinky hard to use oil-based stains i ended up applying three coats of my wash
one after another no dry time in between in order to get a look that i was happy with
to protect my new top i just added a little bit
of low tack painters tape around the bottom lip so that i don't make a mess
and now i'm ready for primer i'll be using my favorite you guys see it in almost every video
zinzer bin shellac based primer i am rolling it today with a four inch microfiber roller
i did two quick coats of my shellac based primer let it dry for about an hour
and then popped back out to the garage with some 400 grit sandpaper on my surf prep
just to smooth out that roller texture i want to keep this table really light bright
airy and neutral so the bottom is also getting painted in country chic paint
lazy linen and i'm using their one and a half inch oval brush to apply my paint
the next morning i popped back out to the garage and applied a second coat of lazy linen
but when i stood back and looked at the table the linen was a little too stark and bright i
wanted to warm it up just a little bit so i grabbed some sunday tea which is again
a very pale neutral beige color i misted the lazy linen paint with a little bit of water
and then just barely dunked my brush into that sunday tea beige and sort of
washed it or blended it over top you really can't see the difference on camera it's
very very slight like i said just warming up that cool linen color just a touch
after i let all of my paint dry i was ready to move on to top coat or sealer to protect my new
finish and for this i decided to use country chic paints tough coat you want to mix this
sealer really well before each use to make sure all of the ingredients are incorporated
and then i poured a tiny bit out into a separate container and added a splash of my paint to tint
it you guys have seen me do this lots before it is my favorite way to prevent streakiness
or haziness in a poly type top coat using the same one and a half inch oval brush from
country chic i brushed my tinted tough coat over the entire base just being careful to go back
and check for little drips which happen a lot on intricate details like these
country chic's tough coat is an incredibly strong water-based sealer it is what they recommend for
painted surfaces like kitchen cabinets outdoor furniture and table tops so perfect in this case
it's going to make my table water resistant scratch resistant and
just better able to stand up to heavy wear and tear
it's going to add a beautiful satin sheen it is non-yellowing and eco-friendly
to seal the top of the table i'm going to use one of country chic sponge applicators
i love using these with top coats to get a really smooth brush stroke
free finish on large flat surfaces i got my sponge wet under the tap and then rang it out really well
and you can see again i poured out a little bit of my tough coat into a separate container so
that i don't contaminate the whole jar then i took my sponge applicator dipped it in the tough coat
scraped off the excess on the side of my plate and i'm just going to
apply it really smoothly one stroke at a time another really fantastic benefit of this
tough coat is that it only requires two coats for maximum protection that is a time saver for sure
and you know the drill from here as soon as my second coat of sealer was good and dry
i brought the coffee table into the house and staged it up for final photos
so
a super quick little numbers roundup before i let you guys go i have about 40 worth of
materials invested into this free little coffee table and about four hours worth of
labor like i mentioned i have a really hard time selling coffee tables they've just never
been good movers for me so if i were to sell it i would probably price it in the 200 maybe 250 max
range but this specific coffee table is going to be given away for free thank you for hanging out
with me again today make sure that you tap that subscribe button before you go i'm gonna leave a
few more videos here that i think you might like to watch next and i will catch you guys next time