Baby It’s Cold Outside–Coffee table redo

January 13, 2016
nicole

Hi! I'm Nicole

Fearless DIY. Sharing building project tutorials and interior design tips. Let’s build something beautiful together. For more projects, design tips and behind the scenes, follow me @designtobuild.nicole

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As my mom would say, “It’s not fit for man or beast to be out there!!” And for that reason, I’ve been finding indoor projects…ones that don’t require my garage tools. 🙂

Currently, I’m in Minneapolis (a.k.a the frozen tundra). One sign read -12 here today!! Not much better at home though. We had a snowstorm last night, so the kids had a snow day today. 🙂 If only it could have come later in the week…hate missing those.

I drove up here with my parents to bring Auston (my oldest) back to college. Always sad leaving him. Hold onto your babies as long as you can!! It goes by WAY too fast!!

My latest project was kind of a last minute decision. I had a group of ladies coming to my house for Girls Night Out, so what better time to strip my coffee table down to bare wood and give it a whole new look, than the day of the get-together??? Just a little stressful…but task completed. 🙂 And I love it!!!

I went from this….

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Not bad…but not great either.

To this…

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My first step was stripping this down to its bare wood. I did this with this product…

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My sister texted me, after I told her I had used this product, and said, “What stripper did you use on your table?” 🙂 This is the one…Doesn’t get anymore risqué than that. 🙂

Anyway, I digress…This product works like a charm. The key is to allow it the full time to soak in. It pays off to follow the directions on this one. I got a little impatient and started scraping too soon and it came off like this…

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Very splotchy.

The next coat I gave, I let it sit for 15 minutes and it came off so easily…

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Super easy product to use. Just spray, let sit, then use a scraper to peel it off. Afterwards, I used a sander to get down to the bare wood…primarily because I was planning on using stain. I feel like if you were going to use paint you could get away with just using the stripper and not having to sand.

Once I sanded it looked like this…

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Now I was ready to apply my stain. I used my all-time favorite stain…

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General Finish Black Gel Stain. I get it from a local store here in town. I love it!! It goes on thick and has great coverage. Love the color too…

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Last step was…I applied a coat of poly. (Still need to apply a couple more coats). I’ll get to it eventually. 🙂

Then came the super fun part…SHOPPING!!! for new decor to display on it!! So after a trip to Hobby Lobby–LOVE that store!!! Here is what I put together…

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And here are a few shots of my family room sitting area now…

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After taking down a lot of my Christmas decorations I decided to redo this area too…

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Still need to find a sign (or something) for that blank space to the right. But for now, here’s another shot…

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Gotta love those Hobby Lobby deals. 🙂

Another super-easy project. All completed in a day, that didn’t break the bank, but did change the look somewhat.

Hope you’re finding some fun projects to pass the winter blues away too. As always, don’t hesitate to send me a message with any questions you may have. Love to help out wherever I can. Till next time, stay warm. 🙂

 

 

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