I inherited a bunch of my grandmother’s old furniture, but over the years (and several moves) I’ve ended up giving away or selling most of it. At this point, all I have left is a floral chair that I’m planning on recovering and a clunky side table that I’ve never found particularly useful (it has no shelves inside, so isn’t really good for storing the kinds of small things you keep in bedside tables…and I don’t have space for it anywhere else).

I’ve been planning on replacing it with something a little more practical…but then the other day I saw this post on transforming an old side table into a cozy dog bed, and knew I had my next project all lined up.

The prep work just involves removing the door and any inner latches, and cleaning the piece really, really well.

After that, all I did was apply three coats of Rust-oleum flat white indoor/outdoor paint.

Some furniture-painting tips:

1) If you’re going to strip the furniture first, sand along the grain of the wood (if you want to get really fancy, start with 80 grit and move up to 150 grit or 220 grit, using a tack cloth to remove sawdust between sandings).

2) Use water-based paint on wood furniture, and use a synthetic brush with water-based paint (and vice versa).

3) Gloss paint shows everything…only use it if the surface you’re painting is pristine (use semi-gloss or matte for a more forgiving finish).

4) Put down a (big) drop cloth. You’ll think you won’t splatter paint on everything, but you will.

5) Nail polish remover gets the stains off of furniture/floors that have been splattered, but spot-test first to ensure that you won’t take off anything you don’t want to.

6) Be sure to keep the area well-ventilated, and if you have dogs that are curiouser than mine (who are good about not sticking their noses in toxic things but bad about being put in other rooms), make sure to keep them out of the area.

Click here for more info on rehabbing furniture, and here for info on how to stain wood (if that’s your preferred look).

Here’s the finished piece, topped with a Modern Dose Crinkle Vase and a Target Simply Shabby Chic lamp. I’m planning on finding (or making) a pillow that actually fits, but for now Lucy seems pretty thrilled with that one.

See?

You recall how Lucy really, really (really) loves small spaces? Well, she’s barely budged from this spot since Saturday afternoon. Apparently it’s Girls-Only, though; Virgil is in no way, shape or form allowed inside.

But that’s OK. He’s happy to hang out on the bed with Dad and watch the goings-on from there.

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March 15th, 2011 | Posted by Jordan | Best, Home | 15 Comments »
Tags: DIY, Lucy, Virgil