DIY High Gloss Table

 I love finding good deals!  Who doesn't?  Sister recently moved into an apartment, and so began the hunt for furniture and things with which to beautify it.  It's like having a second house to decorate!  If you couldn't tell already, I love to decorate.  L.O.V.E.  I also love finding things that are good but cheap, like this wooden dining room table and chairs.  Found it on Craigslist.  Now, are you ready to hear how much it was?  Nah...I don't think you are.  One more time.  Are you ready to hear how much it was?!  That's better.  $20!  That's right folks.  This fun wooden table and chairs was just $20!!!  And, we already had the sandpaper, already had the paint, and already had the brushes.  Bam!  I was pretty proud of this table's turnaround.

First part of the prep work is sanding the surface.  Yes, it was a wooden table, but the surface of it was covered in that fake wood grain shiny synthetic stuff.  And yes, that's the 'official' name of it.  I used a couple of different grit sandpapers.  First I used 60 grit, which is a coarser grit to really texturize the surface to give the paint something to adhere to.  If the surface is too slick, then the paint could easily chip off.  Then, to smooth it out a little so the surface wasn't too gritty I went back over everything with a 120 grit.  I then wiped over everything to make sure I had a perfectly clean surface with no leftover dust that could prevent the paint from adhering.

I wanted a high gloss paint.  So high of a gloss that I could see my reflection in it!  This was the perfect paint.  It was actually pretty much enamel.  Oil-based, Professional High Performance Protective Enamel by Rust-Oleum. (You can find it here.) This stuff did the job.  Best thing is, it's cheap and this little can goes a looong way.  We also used this same little can to paint the sink cabinet in our guest bathroom.  After this table project, there was still a little less than half a can left.  It goes on thick so it only needs one coat.

Look at the crazy difference!  I was in love with it already.  Too bad it wasn't staying at our house.  Buuut we have our dining room table (which is currently orange) that could technically be repainted.  Hmmm.....

Make sure to paint the legs.  This is where my hands got the messiest!  In hindsight, I would suggest  wearing gloves to paint the legs, unless you have a better method than I did.  This paint got all over me when I got down to the other end of this and only had the screw to hold onto.  This paint doesn't come off of skin easily.  It will take paint thinner, and not just mere water and soap.  So be warned.
 
    I finished it off by putting a clear polyurethane coating. (Found here.)  I accidentally used semi-gloss, when what I really wanted was high gloss, but it still turned out really glossy.

Of course, I had to test how the chairs were going to look with it.  Everyone was skeptical about having brown chairs with a black table.  They didn't believe me that it would look so good.  It's that age old fashion faux-paux "brown doesn't go with black..."  Well this does!  Everyone was sucking back their words when they saw the finished product.  "Trust me," I say.  "We have a hard time picturing it," they say. "Well look at it now," I say.  "Ooh!  It does look good," they say!