Moving forward on my plan to unstick myself, creatively speaking, I decided to work on this fabulous pair of end tables that came from my neighbor nnK’s parents.

She’d grown tired of them and replaced them with chrome and glass of some kind.

They look great from that angle, but nnk’s mom had kept houseplants on these tables resulting in water damage to both tops.

There was also a spot where the veneer was worn through, I’m not quite sure how that happened.  In addition, the pieces were discolored from years in bright and sunny living room overlooking the lake.

All of which meant that these tables were great candidates for some paint.

I decided to keep it super simple, just painting the damaged shells of the tables and leaving the drawer fronts and legs in their original finish.

Since the previous owners had often spruced up these tables with a coat of furniture oil of some kind, I gave them an extra thorough cleaning with Dixie Belle’s White Lightning which contains trisodium phosphate.  I usually use a TSP substitute, but in this case I thought I should go for the big guns.

Today’s q tip; always wear gloves when using TSP.  Also, be sure to rinse your piece with clean, plain water after cleaning it with White Lightning to remove any residue.

Once the tables were dry again, I sanded them with 220 grit paper to rough up the surface a bit and thus improve the adherence of the paint.

Finally, I painted the shell in Dixie Belle’s Silk paint in Anchor.  Just a reminder, Anchor is the black in the Silk line, Black Sands is a charcoal grey.  I was confused by that once and ordered the wrong color and I don’t want you guys to make the same mistake.

Once again, I chose the Silk line from Dixie Belle because of its built in primer and top coat.  It was super simple to add two coats of Anchor to each table.

The Silk paint has just a tad more shine to it than the very flat chalk paint, but I’d say it’s comparable to the sheen you get with a waxed chalk paint finish.

I then spruced up the existing finish on the areas that I didn’t paint using some of Dixie Belle’s Big Mama’s Butta.

By the way, the backs of the tables look like this …

And here is the completed pair.

I like the clean, modern lines of this Scandi looking pair.

Although this isn’t my usual style, it was still fun to breath new life into these tables with just a little paint and some butta’.  The next step will be to find out whether or not they will sell!  I’ll keep you posted.  Of course, if any of you locals are interested in purchasing this pair, be sure to check my ‘available for local sale‘ page for the details.

As always, thanks to Dixie Belle Paint Co for providing the White Lightning, Silk paint and Big Mama’s Butta used for this makeover.