Furniture Makeover – Game Table

I have been a furniture machine over here lately.  My hands are as rough as sandpaper, and my hair is spattered with paint and I have some GREAT makeovers to show you.

First up, and this one was a real PITA, is this game table;

I’m going to guess and say that the red splatter art was put on with nail polish because it was a beast to get off.

I used my favourite paint stripper (Heirloom), and even so I had to coat the table top twice to scrape everything off.

Beneath the nail polish and paint was the original finish – a sort of honey stain with a varnish topper – which also had to be removed…

A bit of elbow grease and a few grades of sandpaper and it was so gorgeous I could have kissed it.  My favourite part of furniture makeovers is sanding it down to the bones; the wood is so smooth and perfect and new.

Maybe it’s my second-favourite part – the ‘afters’ are probably the best.  Might be all of the paint stripper fumes clouding my mind.  (note: this is not an endorsement for huffing – no matter how good the paint smells).

The person I was refinishing the table for had chosen a gorgeous navy colour with just the slightest hint of purple in it… and as much as I hated covering up the freshly cleaned wood, I was dying to see the new colour.

Because this is a game table, and I’m sure food is eaten on it occasionally, I decided to put on two coats of Kilz primer.  I wanted a strong base for the colour to adhere to and this stuff is amazing (this coming from someone that hates oil-based paints).

If you are following along and making-over your own table, you’ll want to lightly sand between coats.  This surface is really going to catch the light so it needs to be as smooth as you can possibly get it, and that starts at the primer stage.  Think 150 – 180 grit sandpaper.

This is the part that MADE ME CRAZY – I could not get the top coats perfectly smooth.  I didn’t want to use a roller because it takes away a bit of the shine, but I just couldn’t get my brush strokes perfectly smooth.

This could be because it was a new paint I was using (which I don’t recommend, so I won’t mention it here), or because the weather was so cold and despite the space heaters, there was not a lot of fluidity in the paint for it to self-level.

Whatever it was, this table ended up with about 4 coats of paint – one of which was me actually pouring the paint on the table and then moving it around in the hopes it would spread and become mirror-like.

Nope – nothing worked.  No amount of sanding between layers of paint was enough to get the next coat glass-smooth. 

The paint I was using was not supposed to require a polyurethane finish, but because it was still showing brush strokes, it really did need it – more for smoothness than for protection.  (Pretty sure you could hammer a nail into this table and it wouldn’t show a chip – the paint is that thick.)

These are photos the owner sent me of the finished game table in her house:

What do you think?  Worth the effort?

I think so – and that colour is stunning – especially against her grey walls!

More projects coming – keep coming back for more before and afters!

Have a great one!

Linked to:

• Between Naps on the Porch
• Skip to my Lou