Upcycling Mid Century Furniture Without Losing Its Flavor

I love mid century items and furniture. Not always for their look, but for their design. I come across alot of furniture that seems to sit around in the thrift stores and sheepishly sits in the garage of the neighborhood yard sales. Many times you can get them for next to nothing.

Two weeks ago, that is exactly what happened. My neighbor finished her garage sale and then asked me would I want to come over and get anything that was leftover. She knows how much I love to tinker with things. When I arrived, there sat a pair of  mid century end tables. Not exactly beautiful in color, but definitely had style.

I really liked how they were very deep and narrower across so to fit nicely between furniture. As I studied them, I did not want to take away from their "era", but did want to upcycle them into something more appealing than their drab brunette color.

They were topped with a laminate, so I knew there was not much I could do there. So I decided to match the paint with the laminate color.

First I taped off the area where the laminate was and spray painted lightly the entire surfaces of each. By doing this you help the next layer of paint adhere without having to do much sanding.

Then I painted a top coat of white latex over both tables and allowed it to dry. Doing a "dry brush" effect so that the wood from underneath could somewhat show through. Then I painted a color that was complimentary ( wheat color) with the laminate on top over the white paint and the spray paint showed below. Just as us women love to get our hair colored with highlights and lowlights, I love doing this with furniture as well. It allows the colors from underneath to show through. Always making sure to paint each coat of paint so not to completely cover the coat from underneath.

After these three coats, I then put on a final coat of a slightly darker color (yellow-gold)  overtop of the wheat color, once again letting the layers from before slightly show through.  As this was drying I removed the handles from the drawers and spray painted them a weathered gray. I then spray painted the drawers with spray paint followed by a coat of latex white paint. I allowed them to dry and then roughed up the face of both drawers and replaced the handles. Next I distressed both tables to give them a worn look and then replaced the drawers. I wanted to keep them white to give a contrast to the tables and the laminate tops.

I was very pleased with the outcome. The tables look more current, but have still kept their "mid century flavor".

• Paint .50 at Lowes x 2                $1.00
• tables                                 (donated)
• Spray Paint "Ollies Discount         $1.00

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• TOTAL OF TODAY’S PROJECT       $2.00

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