Two Very Different Tables

The great thing about buying, revamping, and selling furniture is that you get to work on pieces that aren't really your style.  Take these two side tables, one is a little too early American, and the other mid century modern, neither fit into my eclectic mix.

I found this little black table for $6 at a yard sale.  It wasn't too bad, except that the tops were pretty scratched up.  At first I was going to paint it a softer black and call it good, but then I thought a little pop of color would be fun.  

The bonus of only painting the bottom shelf and tops is that I didn't have to mess with the legs or inside of the drawers.  I don't know about you, but I really don't like painting intricately turned legs, they always want to drip, and I'm a little anal about getting the paint just right on the inside of drawers so that the brush strokes are just right on all of the angles.  Anyhow, I dismantled it, mixed up some homemade chalk paint using my turquoise Oops paint that I got last year for $2 (boy has this gone a long way!),  painted the top and bottom pieces, added a little pewter knob, and I was done in a day.  The other great thing about this piece is that my husband didn't have to fix anything on it like he usually does.

My other table is a perfect example of a mid century modern that I picked up at an estate sale I worked on this spring.  I couldn't believe that nobody wanted this great little piece.  The finish on it was perfect, and it came with glass for both tops.  It was really well taken care of, but the color was kind of weird.

I knew immediately that I wanted to have some fun with this one.  Once again this piece was in such good shape that my husband didn't have to do anything to it, which is good because he just couldn't see my vision of it.  He kept calling it the Star Ship Enterprise, and saying he saw it painted silver.  "Nope" I said, "this baby is going totally retro and is going to be orange."  "Orange? I just can't see it." says he "it will really take just the right person to want to buy that."  So off to H.D. I went and got a sample jar of Behr's Glowing Firelight, mixed in some baking soda and water, scratched up the finish a little with some 150 grit sandpaper, and painted away.  I finished it with poly and put the glass tops back on and fell in love with it.  It still doesn't go with anything I have, but it sold the other day after two women argued over who got to buy it.  So neener, neener, neener honey.

Linking up at:

boogie board cottage 
coastal charm  

savvy southern style

diy by design

miss mustard seed

funky junk interiors