Small Console Table Gets a Face Lift

So, I have had this little table resting on the landing halfway up my stairway.  It's been there since we completed the re-paint of half the interior of the house.  The mirror in the image has been removed.  I realized a few days ago that the shape was just all wrong for the space.

As I told you earlier in the week in my blog post Color, Inspiration and School Buses,  I had let this console just sit because I hadn't experienced an "Ah Ha!" moment in terms of color selection.  This table can be seen as you entire my house just beyond my dining area.  (image below)

Okay......so here is the kinda crazy artist thing that happened.  I was in the car at the crack of dawn taking my son to school.  I am sitting at a light and a school bus pulls right up behind my little car.  All I can see out the back of my window is school bus yellow. 

It triggers the following image in my brain.....

Desk by Katie of Craptastic.

I saw this desk a few days ago on a Linky Party.   I have been seeing a lot of this yellow color on the blogs lately.  I have been wanting to try it out. I am sitting at this traffic light with this school bus in my back window thinking of this desk.  It all of a sudden occurs to me that THIS is the color I will paint the little table on the stairway landing.  

So I dragged the table out on the patio behind my bedroom.  I have set up this area as a paint studio for my master bedroom furniture makeover projects.  I tried to remove the hardware for the sanding process, but the base plate was not removable.  Well.....actually anything can be removed, but I realized that the damage would be too great to justify digging them off the front of this drawer.   I had to mask the pulls.

I lightly sanded the finish off the entire table and primed the surfaces.  I then came back with two coats of Sherwin William's 6903 "Cheerful" in a water based satin.  I picked this bright color because I know the antiquing process will seriously tone down the color.  Anything more subdued will not net the results, a dark mustard yellow, that I am targeting.

I then took the console into my studio for the next step....hand painting.  I had been collecting images of pineapples for quite some time and decided to use these images as inspiration.  My house is colorful, and tropical.   I think this yellow also a role in the decision. 

Here is the desk after I lay the first layers of color down for the table top.  I painted this while listening to one of my favorite CDs, Josh Groban's "Illuminations," playing at deafening levels.  When I hand paint, I have to have music playing, or I get too serious and uptight. 

Below is the desk with the hand painting completed, but waiting for the distressing and antiquing phase.

detail

So now for the distressing.  I take my trusty Black and Decker Mouse and sand off the finish on the edges of the piece and return with the tip of my Mouse to add distress marks here and there on the top and legs.

Distress Marks

I included distress marks on the hand painted parts.

Decided to distress a little heavier.

I also lightly sand the hardware.  I had earlier added a red acrylic paint.

I wiped down the entire table with a damp cloth.  After it dried, I took MinWax Dark Walnut Stain and rubbed a wash over the entire table, allowing the stain to remain in the detailed grooves on the legs.

Here it is back on the stairway landing.  It is a cloudy day, so the image is a little dark.

I also added some paper to line in the inside of the drawer.

I still have to finish this piece with a sealer.  I haven't decided whether it will be MinWax Finishing Wax or Wipe-On Poly.  I will wait a week or so for the paint and stain to completely cure.  I also have not decided what I am going to place on and around the table.  I have a few ideas that I need to work on.  I will update you at a later time.  I am super happy with how this turned out.  Hope you do too! 

As a final note, my yard sales today didn't yield very much.  But, I was super happy to find a relatively new staple gun for 2 bucks!  Mine broke this past week and I had it on my list to pick up a new one.   Nice savings! Yeah! 

-The End-

I am linking this project to: