Drab-to-Fab Console Table

Remember the new (old) console table I found a couple weeks ago?

The hunter green definitely had to go bye-bye, but I wasn't quite sure which direction to take. Paint or stain? Light or dark? Two-tone? One color? After reading through the comments on my first post, I decided to take Sara's advice (the girl knows what she's talking about) -- paint the bottom white and stain the top darker. It would be something different for me; plus, the top is made of nice oak so I wanted to keep the wood grain and not cover it up with paint.

First, I dismantled the table to make the job easier. It was as simple as unscrewing the top from the base.

I already had some white paint from a previous project, so I slapped on a couple coats of Valspar Satin White latex enamel (in lieu of a primer), then painted two more thin coats of Valspar Powdered Snow, which I had a small sample size of. I finished it off with Rustoleum Crystal Clear Gloss.

One coat down, three more to go!

I didn't want to totally strip the tabletop, so we asked someone at Lowe's if there was a way to  just make the existing stain darker. He recommended Minwax PolyShades (stain and poly in one step). But they only had large cans and didn't have the color I wanted anyway, so I went over to Home Depot. No luck there either. Finally, I ended up at Ace True Value and bought their store-brand Dark Walnut gloss. I found a sample size for a very budget-friendly $3.

I still sanded the oak with 220 sandpaper first to get the clear finish off, then went over it with a finer 320. Then, it was ready to be stained (or at least I hoped so).

It looked pretty good after one coat, but I still wanted it darker, so I applied a second coat several hours later. But apparently I didn't wait long enough. Take note, kids -- this is what happens when you get impatient and add more stain when the first coat is still tacky.

Drat. A hideous light spotch in the corner. Naturally, the more I tried to blend it, the more I kept rubbing off. Frustrated and not sure how to remedy the situation, I gave up for the night. The next morning, I lightly sanded the whole top with 320 paper to try to even it out, and applied one more coat over the entire thing. It's still not perfect, but definitely an improvement.

Base painted? Check. Top stained? Check. But my work wasn't done yet! The dinky little wooden drawer knob just wasn't doing it for me. So I found a spiffy, oil-rubbed bronze pull at Home Depot to bring the drawer up to date. The perfect finishing touch!

Let's recap this project:

Table - $25

Paint - $0 (already had on hand)

Stain - $3

Drawer pull - $3

Total cost - $31

And finally -- the official before and after pics:

Uneven staining aside, I'm pretty happy with the results and how the table looks in the space. And now, I get to decorate it! So what do you think of my second furniture makeover project?

I'm linking this project up to:
Manic Monday Linky Party