Give a Tired, Old Sofa Table a Fun Chalk Paint Transformation

Another Great Craigslist Find!

All Dressed Up With a Little Bit of ASCP

Ok, so I have to be honest here. I didn't take any process pics. At least, if I did, I can't find them (it was before Christmas and Ben was away at the time, so I can't remember). So all I can offer you are a few before-and-after shots, but the whole point of the post is that it's another fun example of how you can totally score on an inexpensive Craigslist find.

"Long Wooden Table for Sale - $60!"

And that's how I found this beauty listed (original listing pic below--somehow THAT picture, I could find...). I actually thought about this one for a little while before I took the leap. I really needed a sofa table, but I was trying to watch the budget, and I didn't feel up to spending even $60 at the time. So I waited about a week, noticed the posting was still up, and offered them $40. We settled on $45, and the deal was done!

It ended up that I was buying the piece was from a moving and storage company. Apparently sometimes when people move, they just leave stuff behind, and that's what happened with this table. It was totally covered in cobwebs and spider eggs when I picked it up, but it was nice and sturdy, and the legs were even cooler in person than they were on the screen. So I brought it home, and as I was cleaning it up, I noticed on the bottom that it's made by Lane! Not bad--I nabbed a quality piece for $45. But even with that knowledge, I knew I wasn't going to leave it alone ;)

I didn't like the finish of the blonde wood and knots (no offense meant--I know there are plenty of people who do like it), so I decided to whip out my chalk paint and give it a fresh look. Now this is the part of the post where I'd usually show you a few pics of the painting process, but, again, I forgot the pics, so I'll give you a quick rundown of the steps I took.

• Clean It: I just used some soap and water to get all the dust and debris off the top.
• Paint It: I used Annie Sloan's Old White, and it took me about 3 coats to get the finish to look how I wanted.
• Distress It: For most of the distressing, I used steel wool. This has recently become my favorite method of distressing, because (a) I can't stand the feeling of hot sandpaper on my hands... even thinking about it makes my stomach turn, and (b) a scraper is just too drastic sometimes, but I did use it a little bit on this project. I think steel wool is a pretty quick solution, plus it's easy to work with. Once in a while you just have to give it a rinse or grab a fresh piece (depending on how thick your paint coverage is).
• Finish With Wax: I like Annie Sloan's clear wax for this purpose. You can use a brush or a rag to apply it.
   

I'm so much happier with the piece looking like this--although I loved the legs either way. But the color and finish fits in better with the rest of the room now. And for $40 (plus the cost of paint... so maybe $12 in paint... I used about 1/3 of the can), I'm more than happy with the result!

And if I'm being really honest, in it's day-to-day state, the table looks a lot more like the two pics right above this (meaning: kids books and toys abound... actually, to be even more honest, the toys are ever-present but it's never really even THAT neat)... the other photos are totally staged. The table's in the family room, and that's one of the main places the kids hang out, so the space is inevitably invaded by toys... no use fighting it!

And there you have it! I really love these pieces that you can buy for such a reasonable price and are super-easy to fix up. After looking in retail stores and seeing similar-sized tables in the hundreds-thousand dollar range, completing a piece like this for just over $50 feels pretty darn good!

Wondering just how much I love my Craigslist finds? Here are couple more of my past transformations:

Interested in buying/selling on Craigslist but not sure where to start? Check out these posts:

And, if we're not already connected, find me on Pinterest, Facebook, and Google+ so we can start sharing ideas together!




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