Refinishing Furniture { an intricate sofa table }

Freakin' Fabulous  button copy I know a lot of you may already know I am obsessed with furniture. Some people love shoes or clothes, I love furniture (and fabric, but that is beside the point!). I have a love affair with furniture especially. I consider myself a treasure hunter and I love to search for THE PERFECT furniture pieces for my home. I have refinished a lot of furniture, and even reupholstered a few furniture pieces. Choosing the right furniture, or customizing it to your space is ESSENTIAL in having a home that feels like YOURS. So, I’d like to announce a brand new series that will take place EVERY FRIDAY here at All Things Thrifty. Here’s the gist: EVERY FRIDAY you will get to see some FREAKIN’ FABULOUS FURNITURE where you will find furniture that I refinish myself, along with the occasional feature of someone else’s furniture. (so yes, I could feature YOU if you have something to submit). I am excited to showcase some amazing stuff out there, and I might even showcase some of the furniture on my “retail wish list.” Over the last three years of interior decorating, I have realized: The furniture that you have in your home defines your style and definitely helps to BRIGHTEN and LIVEN it. I love furniture, and I cannot wait to show you my FIRST FREAKIN’ FABULOUS FURNITURE post!
My friends Dani and Ashton asked me to refinish their intricate entry way sofa table. They had inherited the furniture from a relative, and they were chunky, intricate, and AWESOME (the furniture, not the relative, he, he)!  Not only did they recieve this amazing sofa table, but they also got the matching coffee table and side tables too! Lucky freakin’ ducks. I loved the intricate carvings, and for some, the tables might have been perfect without refinishing them. However, for Dani and Ashton’s home, leaving them this wood color would have been a BIG mistake.

Refinishing FurnitureJust check out the intricate details of these bad boys. If you have been around All Things Thrifty for awhile, you already know that furniture like this is EXACTLY my specialty. I love to glaze furniture and when you add glaze to refinish furniture like these it makes those nooks and crannies just POP! I knew the work that was ahead of me, and I got to work. A month after she brought it to me, ahem.
Refinishing Furniture Refinishing Furniture
First I washed the furniture carefully to get all the dust out of the intricate details. The furniture had been sitting in my garage for a few weeks and had started to collect a bunch of dust.
Sanding Furniture Sanding Furniture
Then I primed the furniture with KILZ. I followed my painting furniture post techniques to a T. After the primer dried, I sanded it down with 220 grit sand paper. I even used my electric sander to do most of the work. I did have to sand by hand to get into the nooks and crannies. (Be aware the you need to shake the can well before you prime furniture). AND, you must make sure that the KILZ can is not cold. If you try and paint with a cold can of KILZ, it will come out in spurts instead of an even spray of primer.
 
Next, I glazed the furniture. I have some great videos showing my techniques in my glazing furniture 101 post.

cream furniture with glazeAs you can see, the furniture turned out GREAT! I wish I had this in MY HOUSE!!entry way tableJust take a gander at all those beautiful intricate details!
glazed furniture cream furniture   glalzed furniture 1 intricate furniture
Want another look at the before picture? Molding, 3M, jills table 015 And the After photo…just to remind you of how stinkin’ SAWEEEET it turned out!?!? NO PROBLEM!
entry way table
I’m telling ya, I love before and after photos. I’m a little OBSESSED! As a part of my FREAKIN’ FABULOUS FURNITURE series, I am accepting submissions for features. I will be featuring my own transformations as well as an occasional feature of others. So, if you have a FREAKIN’ FABULOUS piece of FURNITURE, send me a GOOD photo to allthingsthrifty at gmail dot com.

Published on January 6, 2012

29 thoughts on “Refinishing Furniture { an intricate sofa table }”

  1. What a gorgeous transformation — definitely the perfect choice of colours. This table would suit any decorating scheme.

    Can't wait to see the other tables when you're done with them! 😉
    dawnedesign.net

  2. I just did this very same thing to my dining table (and finished just in time for Christmas company!) I am a little sad because the table top is already chipping even though I'm pretty sure I followed all your steps to the T too. I've been meaning to send you pics! The legs and "skirt" under the table top look just like your sofa table piece – AMAZING! I'm so glad I learned about glazing from you!

  3. I promise I did all that to my table, exactly how you said. The parts that chipped, (which are very small) went all the way to the wood! At least the layers are sticking together. Maybe I should use polyurethane instead; I've had better results with it.
    Love your work!

  4. Meg, when you do a dining room table that has a lot of traffic you definitely need to seal it with a polyacrylic clear coat to protect it. I would do at least 3-5 coats letting it dry completely in between. Brush it on with a NICE brush (not a cheap one). Also sand with 220 grit sand paper in between the coats. (Just read the directions on the container and follow it). I would hurry and do it before it chips more.

  5. I guess I was assuming that you didn't seal it…ha ha. Have you put a seal over the top?

  6. Meg,
    CRAPPITY CRAP. That happens every so often! Basically that means that there were certain spots that the paint didn't want to adhere to. Did you sand the furniture before you primed it by any chance? Sometimes a light sand will help with that, but I rarely do that. Do you want to give it a try again? You would have to sand it down though. E-mail me a picture so I can see, and we'll continue the conversation back and forth via e-mail. 🙂

  7. great job! I have redone all of my cherry furniture in my house and while it was a "real" job I love the way it looks.
    Happy New Year and keep on sanding…

  8. Hi Brooke,
    My sister-in-law just introduced me to your blog and I am HOOKED!! I'm wanting to paint my kitchen table/chairs and am wondering what color you used on this table. I love love love it! Thank you for such great inspiration:)

  9. Mandy,
    I used Krylon Ivory Spray paint. I used the "gloss" sheen so that it would glaze easily! Thank you for your cute compliments! xoxo.

  10. I love the job you did on this table, my hubby had a problem with me painting the wood furniture in our house but he is coming around lol
    I have used spray paint on small projects but not on large piece of furniture, how do you deal with drips running down? Everyone tells me you have to use a paint sprayer to do a good job, but your projects look amazing.
    check out my blog I am new to this and so its my blog but I am enjoying the projects and the blogging, would be nice to have an audience lol tobeystrashortreasure.blogspot.com
    love your blog and your projects
    take care Tobey

  11. Hi ,
    I have a dining room table that I want to redo and I love the antique /shabby chic/ look. I love doing distressed whites creams etc. any ideas of what I could do. It is solid oak. It has a lot of intricate details like this table. Also did you just glaze over the primer for this.there was no mention of a paint color?
    Thanks many blessings for you and your amazing work!!!!!
    Laura

  12. This is beautiful. I would like something just as intricate, but I would like to keep the wood showing, so I would prefer to stain it. How do I remove paint from intricate details, and how do I stain those areas? Please help me with your expert advice! I have seen a piece I like, but it has been painted several times. I am afraid to buy it be cause I don’t know if I will be able to remove all of the paint.

    1. Removing the paint would not be an easy task, but it’s definitely possible. You would need to use a paint stripping agent and a toothbrush to get into all of the cracks. It also depends what paint was used on the piece first. If it was spray paint, then acetone can help get the paint off.

    1. Since Chalk Paint is flat, glaze isn’t the best option to achieve this look. In order to wipe off glaze, you need some sheen on the paint. If you want to achieve this look with chalk paint, then I would suggest a dark wax/clear wax combination.

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