I really, really wanted to save these ugly tables from landfill. Not my taste at all, but if I gave them a quick coat of paint, they would be flipped and I could sell them for $80 maybe, not bad for a few hours work. ..

A few hours work? 😂😂 Excuse me whilst I poke myself with a paintbrush. These took weeks as I screwed up, left them, came back and started again, and finally, FINALLY finished.

Still, I got to experiment and I learnt ALOT. Like, ALOT.

One thing I wanted to do was remove the tops so it was easier to scuff sand and paint the rest. I learnt a lot about how cheap pine furniture is stapled - ugh. So putting it back together was hard - I used nails, and putty to fill the holes, so the tops weren't perfect but at least they were on. And one side cracked and split, so I puttied that too. I gave them a wash with a mix of Fusion paints Alonquin and Raw Silk, and in my head, started calling them 'shabby chic' which is what they call unfinished, rough, shit furniture 😂.

Characterful was another adjective that came to mind.

I just didn't want to put the wood thingie on the top, you know, the bit they put on to stop things sliding back and off the table. They were too old fashioned. Plus, I'd already nailed the tops on, and didn't quite understand how I could attach those whajimacallits, so shabby chic top it was.

Then the painting. I used up FAR more paint than I thought - whites are not forgiving or easy. Give me coal black anyday. But I did learn the benefits of a specific rounded brush in painting the spindles.

By this point I was telling myself I was using the tables as an experiment so thought I'd go full hog and give decoupage a go. I'd bought some gorgeous napkins off eBay for a couple of dollars so set to work on that. Apparently there ARE ways to do it crease free, and I tried, but fuck it, shabby chic right??

I used a sponge brush to coat the drawer fronts and the top and bottom shelf with polyurethane - three coats to the top, and two on the bottom shelf and drawers. It takes weeks to harden properly so I won't sell them til they are proper ready. I also gave a coat of poly to the napkined sides for extra hardness but the modge podge probably was enough.

The handles were from Kmart - rattan is in at the moment apparently.

In the end, though they arent my taste at all, I was kinda pleased with the finished result. They don't look too bad, as long as you don't look too closely.

But, characterful shabby chic kept out of landfill, y'all.