Dark to Light

I feel like furniture goes through phases of being “in style” every 15 years or so. It might be the color, the design, or a little bit of both. Luckily, if color is the issue, it can be an easy fix to update the piece of furniture to fit your modern needs!

We had a super solid coffee table that we got back in 2004 when we bought our first house. It was a very dark mahogany wood color, which was definitely in at the time. Fast forward to 2020, and everything white and light are in. Instead of getting rid of the perfectly-fine dark coffee table that didn’t match a thing in our new house, we decided to improvise a little.

We started off by painting the base of the table white, and using sandpaper to distress the edges. I used white chalk paint, which took a couple of coats.

Stephen purchased some 1x4s, measured them out (allowing for about 1/2 inch of hangover on each end) and screwed them down into the wood in three spots- towards the ends and in the middle.

Stephen buffed the edges to smooth them out.

Stephen filled the screw holes with wood putty, let it dry, and then sanded them so they were smooth.

We then stained the wood. This time, we didn’t do the typical dark brown stain… we went with gray! This particular color is Minwax Wood Finish Stain in Classic Gray 271. We let it sit in the garage for a couple of days before covering it with polyurethane.

Ta Da! The final product. What a difference! Before you chuck your old furniture, try to think if some fresh paint and/or stain could make it better!