Pedestal table with cracked top

I actually found this piece at Stars!  It was cheap because the top was nearly split in half.  That’s easy enough to replace and I really liked the turning on the pedestal base.

Michael found the perfect size round piece in his scrap stash and attached it for me.

I painted the whole thing my ‘new favorite’ putty color white paint and distressed the base to bring out the pretty turnings.

Added a painted on stencil design to the top.  Quick and easy!

Now available for purchase in my booth at Stars.

Before I forget! The drop leaf lamp table: before & after

The white drop leaf lamp table sold before I even had a chance to post the before and after!  If I don’t do it now, I’ll forget about it!

Drop leaf lamp table BEFORE.

Here is what it looked like when I bought it.  And yes, that IS laminate on the top!  Contrary to what many believe, laminate CAN be painted.  It just takes a little more work.  A little sanding to remove the sheen, and a GOOD primer.  (I use KILZ.)

The drop leaves were NOT laminate!  Yea!  Still a bit of extra work involved for the drop leaves because they need to be painted top AND bottom (because the bottom shows when the leaves are down.

Clean innards!

Don’t forget to check the drawer innards to be sure they are clean!  (Do ya like my ‘painting shoes’?)

The ‘bad’ thing about painting laminate is that it does not distress well.  So be sure to keep that in mind when you buy pieces that have laminate.

You don’t want to ‘overly distress’ the non laminate areas of your piece either.  Since the top of furniture usually get the most wear, lightly distress your laminate top and you that as your gauge as to how much to distress the rest of it.

This drawer was clean enough that I didn’t NEED to paper it, but I like to anyhow.  EVERYONE always opens and looks into drawers, so I like to give them something to look AT!

A drop leaf takes nearly twice as long as a regular table to paint because of the extra leaves.  Typically I can paint an entire table ‘all at once’.  Flip it upside down first and paint the lags and undercarriage.  Then stand it upright an paint the top and apron.  Let dry and repeat.

With a drop leaf, you have to paint the undersides of the leaves when you do the legs; but then you have to let all that dry before you flip it and paint the top because you can’t put the leaves down when they are still wet.  AND you have that little ‘notch’ on the top that the leaves lift onto, so you need the leaves down when you paint the top.  I hope that made sense.  The moral is, you’ll need more time than usual to paint a drop leaf!

Be sure you put both leaves up while you are sanding so you can be sure it looks balanced when it’s opened up like this.

And that is how I painted the white drop leaf lamp table that sold in less than a week!