Super SIMPLE Furniture Rehab

OK. This post isn't really that exciting. I'm really hoping that if you're one of those timid "I'm afraid to DIY anything" types that this will kick those fears aside. This is a beyond simple transformation.

My kids have had this little table for a few years. I picked it up at a yard sale for around $5. We've always used it in their play room for crafts, they would eat lunch on it, etc. Good times. I recently rehabbed their play room and there wasn't any room for this table anymore. Honestly, I didn't even try to make room for it. It's pretty worn and ugly.

 

So, I threw it in the basement and it sat there......for months. I don't know why I didn't bother doing something with it sooner, I just didn't.

Here's all you need to do a simple rehab on an old ugly piece of furniture like this.

A can of Minwax stain in your color of choice. I used Walnut for this particular beauty.

 

Some paint. I grabbed a sample of Black at Home Depot. Simple enough.




Then I used some sand paper and sanded down just the top of the table. Since I was staining it, I just needed a smooth finish on it. No need to sand down to the bare bones. I didn't touch the legs of the table.

After sanding the top, I added my stain with an old sock. I grabbed a clean sock and wiped off the stain that I had just applied. The wood can only absorb so much at a time, so it's important to apply the stain with one "sock" and then wipe it back off with another "sock". I waited for the stain to dry completely (a few hours) and I repeated this step. It wasn't as dark as I wanted it with just the one coat.

Then I painted the legs of the table with my black paint. I used a medium sized paint brush and didn't bother making it neat. I planned on distressing the tar out of the legs so I knew it wouldn't matter if the paint looked nice. One of the many reasons I love distressing.

Once the legs were dry, I sanded them down with a sanding block to really rough them up! That's it!

 

 

Easy as pie! Now, this old dilapidated table that used to be in our play room is a super cool distressed end table in the living room!

Cost breakdown for this DIY:
$2.94 Paint Sample


I had everything else on hand.