An Oldie but a Goodie

Lately, we've been paying more attention to our guest room. There is nothing wrong with it, it just needed some love. Like anyone who has just moved, we have been taking the entire house room by room, going through things, sorting, and adjusting where things are.

I recently bought a desk (An Ikea MALM) and I love it! But it made another piece in the room fall to the wayside.

This is Scott's old bedside table from when he was a kid, so we didn't want to get rid of it. It just needed a little updating. The dark color became a black hole in the room, so I thought brightening it up a bit would do wonders.

That's when I remembered that I had gotten my free (Thanks Better Homes and Gardens!) sample of the new Valspar line of fall colors. His name is La Fonda Ortiz Gold and he's a looker.

I took the whole table out to the garage and took out the drawer. I then used my sander and 120 grit sandpaper to give it the once over. I sanded for two reasons. The first was to get a nice smooth surface but also allow for the paint to stick, the second was to get rid of the darker black color as much as possible so that my yellow would stay bright and sunny.

The drawer was another matter. It had a lattice texture on the front, so I didn't want to sand it because I didn't want to lose the detail. Instead, I gave it a good coating of Klean-Strip Easy Liquid Sander Deglosser and let it set for about 30 minutes. When I wiped away half of it with a cloth, I was left with this.

It did pretty well considering the two other coats of paint that it took off. It also leaves the surface with a very matted finished, which makes for better paint adhesion. To get into the smaller grooves of the pattern, I used the most logical tool: An electric Start Wars Darth Vader tooth brush.

It worked really well. It was like the dark side was flowing through me...

When the drawer had been clean and dried, I then gave both it and the main part of the table a good coat of white spray primer. This was also to help with adhesion and to make the yellow pop.

Then, using a foam roller, I gave it the once over with my yellow paint. I used an angle brush to get into the nooks, but the foam roller gives a better texture on the larger spans of wood, such as the top and sides. After about 3 coats, it was all finished! I put the knobs that had originally been on it back on because the contrast worked so well. Bam! It's like new!

And it only took me a couple of hours to finish! Not a bad days work to bring a whole room together!

Ever make any small changes that made a big impact to a room? Let me know!