First Time Furniture Flip

Right out of graduate school and moving into a new apartment, I have little money to spend on new furniture. But, I didn’t want that to stop me from having an aesthetically appealing apartment!! And I am always super excited to decorate a new space. My new apartment has bright white walls and light brown vinyl floors making it a perfect blank canvas. One thing to note about me, I am all about a little creative flare making a room feel more like a home, so that’s exactly what I wanted to do with this space!

Making use of all my and my roommates current furniture, we realized we were missing a coffee table! So I started searching and searching, but coffee tables under $100 are slim pickings and not very cute. Eventually, I decided to see about flipping one.

Please note I have never done any wood working or furniture flipping before, so this was a major FIRST for me! But, I loved every minute of it.

Four thrift stores later, I came across this wooden coffee table for $14.99. SOLD! It was the perfect size, but needed a considerable amount of love.

The first thing to go was the already half broken detail trim. I used a hammer, pliers, and hand sander to clip out all of it before removing the lower wooden trim pieces.

I really wanted a lighter piece of furniture, so the stain had to go. I sanded the body and drawers of the table with 150 grit then to finish used 220 grit. This process took much longer than I expected and I soon realized that the curves on the legs were not going to be easy to sand, and I’d have to find another solution!

Instead of staining the whole piece of furniture I decided to paint the legs and the edges a sage green.

TIP: I did not need much paint so was able to get a $5 paint sample made in any color at Home Depot!

To paint, I used Kills white primer and then an all purpose sage colored paint. Then I sealed the whole piece in Poly Urethane to give it a satin finish.

Below are the before and after images. I am so happy with how it turned out!!