Category Archives: Budget Friendly Ideas

I officially have a new obsession….painting my old outdated furniture! About 3 weeks ago I stumbled across two great sites http://betterafter.blogspot.com/ and http://www.allthingsthrifty.com/  (these sites led me to many others as well) After spending hours and hours on these sites I came to a conclusion that I shared with my husband Jeff. “I could paint every single piece of furniture in this house!” (Jeff is used to my over the top ideas and just simply said “Yup”.)

This is our old entertainment center. Jeff just bought a new flat screen TV and when we wheeled out the old big screen it left a gaping hole in the middle. So we dragged the TV console out of our family room and popped it in. The hole was taken care of but the mismatched look just wasn’t doing it for me. This is where the countless hours I spent  drooling over the painted furniture on the a fore mentioned websites came into play.

Ta Da! I love, love, love my new entertainment center! At first I though I would paint the TV console too but, when you see these two pieces in person the dark color of the console pairs nicely with the chocolate glazing on the old piece. My thought is that if I try to paint the console it will look I tried to match but missed. Whereas if I leave it dark console as is, it looks like two complimentary pieces that make me want to do a high kick like a cheerleader! 🙂

FYI: I used Floetrol to help the paint go on smoothly and to minimize brush/roller marks. And I used my favorite Purdy brushes and tried out 6″ foam rollers for the first time.  Also I primed the furniture with Zinsser oil based primer. I chose not to use Polycrylic or Polyurethane because unlike kitchen cabinets or a dining table this piece will get very little wear and tear. The total cost of paint and supplies was about $15o but the feeling that I really could paint every piece of furniture in my house…priceless!

Here is how the pieces looked with when they were painted with Behr Cottage White in semi gloss.They looked good but still kind of plain. Besides I was feeling brave and wanted desperately to try my hand at glazing.

Here I am brushing on the glaze while simultaneously holding my breath (in case I was ruining about 12 hours worth of priming and painting)

At this stage I am thinking “Oh snap this was a bad idea!”

Immediately after painting on the glaze I started wiping it off with a damp cloth. I had a feeling in my stomach like when you sit at the top of a roller coaster. You know that mixed emotion of “this is great” and “oh crap this is more than I bargained for”!

But when I got the extra glaze wiped off I was elated. The glazing made the rope detail really pop. It’s funny that I always hated the rope detail on the piece when it was a natural wood color (I didn’t buy this piece. Jeff had it when we met) but now I was loving it.

Here is a close up of one of the bases from the piece. I know that the glazing isn’t perfect but I feel like I maybe I hit an ‘in the park’  home run.