another before and after

my mom and i found this little mid century step end table at a garage sale at the beginning of the summer.

the price: $5.

i brought it home, tried to find a place for it, thought about painting it (cause you know i love to paint!) and then decided to try and sell it.  when no one seemed all that interested in it, i revisited the idea of painting it.

so that's what i did.  the black legs and gold metal trim were in vintage condition.  the gold trim was rather splotchy in places, showing a bit of surface rust and just general dirtiness.  because the laminate top is in great condition and is a light, brown color, i thought spray painting the metal areas an espresso brown color would look nice.

now i have to pace myself when it comes to spray painting.  i get so excited about seeing the transformation, i want to zip through the spray painting and not take the time to do it right.  this table was particularly challenging to my not-so-patient self because i had to prime the metal surfaces before painting, not to mention the pain-staking job of taping off the areas that i didn't want painted.

so when the big reveal came, i was quite excited to see just how much better the table looked. 

i brought it back into the house and took pictures of it beside our sofa in order to relist it for sale.  one problem:  when john saw how much better it looked, he decided that we should just keep it instead!

slowly but surely, our collection of mid century furniture and accessories is growing.  we just love it!