Hallway Table Makeover

Before I had my daughter, I worked for a digital scrapbooking company in their home office.  Below the main office, there was a warehouse that was rented out by a furniture store to hold their stock.  Occasionally they would have a sale on pieces that were slightly damaged or missing parts and they would invite us to come and take a look.  It was during one of these sales that I found a cute little wood table for about $20.  It had a couple of tiny scratches on the top but was otherwise in perfect condition.  So I bought it and brought it home to my husband who looked at me like I'd bought the ugliest thing in the world.

We had recently moved into our current home and I thought the table would look nice in the hallway due to how narrow it was.  And it fit perfectly!  The only problem with it was the color, which was a medium-dark brown with a slight reddish tint to it.  I had grand plans to paint it but it just sat there in the hallway, boring brown and mismatched with all our other furniture.

Fast forward five years.  I was looking at this little table one day and I got the itch to paint it.  Like, that day.  So after getting myself and the kids ready for the day, I loaded up and drove to Walmart to to buy some chalk paint.  I knew I wanted to use chalk paint because I didn't want to have to worry about prepping the wood for painting.  When I got to Walmart, I found the brand I was looking for, but the color I wanted was completely gone.  As in, all three sizes were cleared out.  Someone else must have beat me to the punch.  So, I got back in the car and drove to another Walmart (I live within 5 minutes of two stores) and thankfully found two bottles of the color I was looking for.  Phew!  (I used Waverly Inspirations Chalk Paint in the color Agave.)

When my son went down for his nap, I took the table apart in my front room and put all the screws in a bag so they wouldn't get lost.  Then I laid out some painter's plastic in the garage and started painting.  I just used a regular stiff bristle brush and tried to make the strokes as even as possible.  Everything dried fairly quickly so by the time I was done with the first coat, I was able to start on the second coat.  Once it was dry, I brought it inside and put it back together.

The next day during my son's naptime, I took the table outside and used some sand paper to distress it a little bit on some of the corners and edges.  Nothing too extreme but just enough so that if someone looked closely at it, they would know it wasn't just a scratch on an otherwise smooth table.

And that's it!  I put the table back in the hallway and pulled out a white vase and some pink flowers and placed them on top.  I love how simply changing the color of the table added so much brightness to the hallway.  I did the same thing with an old cabinet door that I turned into a sign and placed above our kitchen cabinets.  New paint makes such a huge difference!  (See the cabinet door turned sign HERE.)

Now I just need to find a new runner to complement my new table.  Anyone have any suggestions on great places to find one?