Newlywed Hares: How to Paint an Antique

Going into this project, I was VERY nervous. Like terrified. I almost cried over it. Almost. I had been wanting to spruce up this piece of furniture ever since we inherited it from Adam's grandfather. It is a lyre table. I didn't know it was called that, but my mom told me. It has a beautiful marble top with wooden legs and details. It was a gorgeous piece all by itself, but I am just not into the two tone look. Adam reassured me that is was ok to redo this piece. He said his grandfather would want it to be used.

After much coercing, I decided I could do it. But I was so afraid I was going to ruin it, so I made sure to do my homework first. I read tons of reviews on how to paint furniture. What kept coming up in my searches was this primer by Zinsser.

Thanks, Home Depot!

This primer claimed to cover all surfaces-metal, wood, laminate, plastic, etc. WITHOUT NEEDING SANDING. It doesn't matter if the wood is sealed or has a coating or not. I'll take it. I hate sanding. It sounds wicked boring. So I grabbed a gallon of this from my local Home Depot. I also picked up my top coat of paint that I had seen on a few tutorials.

I believe I picked up a gloss finish. Either would be fine.

So I got to work and started painting. I used even strokes and a light hand. I made sure not to use too much paint on the brush, otherwise the paint would get globby and drippy. I also made sure not to have to little paint on the brush, otherwise it would look streaky. After a 2 coats of primer, it looked like this.

Much brighter!

After the 2 coats of primer, the surface was completely covered. I only used 1 coat of paint over that since I didn't need any more coverage and just needed a little bit of a glossier finish. I'm not sure where this table will end up, but for now I have it in the kitchen to display decorations. We love it! It looks more modern, but still very unique.