Console Table – From Heartbroken to Loved

This console table had seen better days.

While the table itself was in sturdy shape and the drawer worked fine, the top was a complete disaster. Check it out…

Yikes, right? Clearly the top had been used for whittling practice in its old home. Note the heart carved in the middle – this might have been a symbol of love, but it was going to take some serious devotion of a different kind to save this gem. I started with a complete sanding all the way down to the raw wood.

Phew, that was better. Now I had a clean slate to work with. I wanted a woodgrain top with painted legs – a combo I really like – so I applied a rich Minwax espresso stain to the top and added three coats of poly to protect it from future carvers. Then I painted the remainder with Annie Sloan’s Oxford Navy Chalk Paint and protected it with clear wax. The old rusty drawer pull had to go, too, so I replaced it with a sleek new handle. And…