Console Table Refurb

Let me introduce you to CT (yes, it stands for console table, and yes it's also named after the guy on Real World/Road Rules Challenge. And yes, I'm ashamed of all of it.) 

CT originally came to live with the Mister after he was rescued from the curbside, awaiting trash pickup. The Mister used CT as a hutch for his desk - back before we shacked up. Once the Mister moved his stuff into my apartment, I repurposed CT as a console table behind the sofa (and renamed him CT. Duh.)

CT's next home was in our townhouse, where he became a bookshelf of sorts, fitting perfectly under the oval, stained-glass window that was at the bottom of the stairs.

And then CT came to live in the new house with us, and we gave him a home behind the loveseat.

These are some of the pictures from when we first moved in. See CT there, behind the couch? Notice how he isn't white? Yeah...the Mister went out of town and I went spray paint happy. CT was actually very scratched up and in pretty bad shape. Plus, I thought the white would help tie the room together, what with the built-ins and the refinished cabinet. But it...didn't. It didn't feel right, it didn't look right - it was, all in all, not a good thing.

See what I mean? It sounded good in theory, but it just didn't work well once executed. I actually missed CT's old, scratched, wooden look. Despite that, we lived with it for a few months to see if it grew on us (it didn't), and then we upgraded our tv stand. It has a much darker wood than the stand we had before, and that inspired me to redo CT (and eventually the coffee table and end table) to tie all the furniture together.

So, into the garage CT went.

I decided to refinish him the same way I did the banister in the foyer, so the first thing I had to do was strip off the white paint. (Nothing like creating more work for yourself, but whatever.)

Once the paint was good and bubbled...

...I scraped it off (or at least most of it). Then I turned CT on his head, and did the underneath of the shelves as well.

Once I was done scraping, I went over it with a stripping pad and Odorless Mineral Spirits. I let it dry overnight, and then I set about sanding it. (What I would do without this baby, lord only knows.)

Once it was as stripped and sanded as I was going to get it (not going to lie - I didn't put a ton of effort into this step, because I knew the craft paint would hide a multitude of sins) I broke out the stain.

Same hickory stain I used for the banister, but this time I used a sponge brush instead of a paint brush. It was super easy to get in the crevices of the shelves and it covered really well, so I highly recommend. Unlike with the stairs, this time I followed directions and wiped the excess stain off after about 5 minutes. 

And that left me with this:

CT was already looking much better, but you can tell he's dying for some craft-paint lovin. And who am I to say no to the wants of inanimate objects? I let him dry overnight first, but he was still just a tad sticky the next day. No big deal though - as I learned with the staircase, the craft paint dries really quickly and seals in all that stickiness.

Unfortunately - when I turned down the craft paint aisle at Michaels, I was met with an unwelcome surprise. They completely restocked...with all different brands. My Dark Burnt Umber that I used on the banister? Gone. Ack!

I tried to find a similar color, and came home with this guy:

It's Raw Umber, which I was hoping would be close. Not. At. All. I started putting it on the table, and immediately stopped. I couldn't get it to photograph well, but it's this icky brown that lacks any richness to it's tone. It's just...blah. Almost like a grayed-out brown, which is weird and gross all lumped into one. Not okay.

So, I went to AC Moore to see if they had my coveted Dark Burnt Umber. No luck there either, so instead I came home with a shade called Bittersweet Chocolate and gave that a whirl. No good. It also was too grayed-out. 

At this point, I was frustrated in a major way. The Mister suggested that I do another coat of stain and leave it on, and then go from there. I figured I had nothing to lose, so I did that and let it sit overnight. And guess what?  

It wasn't sticky at all the next morning. I have no idea why it dried so nicely when I didn't wipe off the excess, but I'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth. I touched up the stain in a few places, let that dry as well, and then went ahead and did two coats of poly (lightly sanding with 320 grit paper in between.) 

And voila - the new and improved CT:

As you can see, CT now flows much better with the wine cabinet in the corner there, as well as with the new TV stand (on which there appears to be a commercial for the ShakeWeight. Nice.)

The end table and the coffee table are next on the refinish-with-a-hickory-stain list, and I think doing those two pieces will really help tie the room together. My concern was/is that the white cabinet I refinished will stick out like a sore thumb in that room, but I suppose I can revisit the concern after the rest of the furniture is finished.

And as an aside, some researching online has divulged that Walmart may have my precious Dark Burnt Umber in the store. I'll have to check later this week and stock up if they do - I still have a few minor touch-ups to the underside of the banister to do. A girl's work is never done.