Monica Wants It: Goodwill Hunting

Remember last month, I bought a chair and a coffee table from Goodwill? Well, the table has basically been finished for about 3 weeks now, but I am just now blogging about it. Probably because I just decorated the table like yesterday. Literally.

Let’s look at the before:

Alrighty, and now we begin! We saw this table, and we loved it. It was the perfect size/shape for what we wanted. We decided to paint this table a very glossy white.

First step is to sand. We used sandpaper and did it by hand. This was just easier for us than whipping out the electric sander we have, especially since we live in an apartment. The left handside is not sanded, right hand side is. Sand in the direction of the wood grain. We did this to the ENTIRE table to get any varnish off.

Don’t know what the hubster is doing here, but if you’d like, you can always flip over your table to stare at it. This is an optional step.

Next, we used a tack cloth ($1.20 at Wal-Mart) to remove all the sanding dust. This is critical so you get a smooth finish when you start priming/painting.

Here’s the hubster with the hose attachment on the vacuum. Don’t laugh! I know you’re laughing. The top of the table has an indented border thing, and the dust was not coming out with the tack cloth. So, we got smart.

Next step is to hug your dog at an awkward angle.

Refill your drinks.

And then PRIME! When I prime, I always freak out because it doesn’t look perfect. Yes, I freak out. I think OH MY GOSH what the HECK have I done? And I proceed to get more wine to get through this difficult 15 minutes. Lindsay can relate. So, to repeat, your primer WILL NOT look good. It will look about as good as Lady Gaga did at the VMAs last night.

We let that dry, and then we moved onto painting it with a white semi-gloss paint + 1 entire can of spray lacquer to finish it up.

And then 3 weeks later I got around to actually making the table look nice with some decor. Don’t judge me.

Don’t you just LURVE my pumpkins?! That blue one is to die for. I got that gorgeous, stunning, pearly blue pumpkin at Hobby Lobby for $10 (it was half off). The orange one is glass and it’s from Ross for $5, and the gray pumpkin is also from Hobby Lobby and it cost $5 (again, half off). I don’t pay retail for much. And here’s one more look at my prized coffee table: