Sewing Table Update

Before we moved in, my wonderful mother-in-law asked me if I wanted her old sewing machine.  My answer:  YESSSS!  I had been looking at blogs for quite sometime and thought "I should learn how to sew pillows."  This was a very clear indication that it was meant to be:)  Here are a few pictures of her generous gift:

I had a bit of time before I could get it out to our place, so I decided to do some research.  Once again, I looked to my trusty blogs for some advice.  "The Nester" had a tab on her blog ( http://www.thenester.com/ ) called "how I paint my furniture" so I clicked on it and came to http://www.altard.com/How-To-Guides.html

I read through the info and decided to download this tutorial for $10.  It was a great decision!  The author outlined exactly what products I should use in order to refinish the sewing table and the best place to get them.  I made a list of what I needed and went to Home Depot.    The first thing I did was to sand the table in order to get the shine off.  

I used a combination of a hand sander and sand paper and then wiped it clean and used spray primer.

This was important because if you don't use a primer on stained wood it may show through your finished product.  Yuck!  

My mom told me to lightly sand the table between coats to make sure the finish would be smooth, so as always,  I listened!  After sanding I began painting the table a light blue color I had in the basement and matched the guest room.

I wanted this color to show through the finished product as I was going for a distressed look.  You can't really tell from this picture, but I painted 2 coats of the blue. 

I once again sanded and then moved to the white coats of paint.  (This was all paint we had in our basement when we moved in.)  I allowed multiple hours between coats so that it was completely dry and then began lightly sanding the edges to give it a distressed look.  

After I was done, I wiped the dust off and used a few coats of high gloss polyurethane to give it a smooth and clear finish.  This also brought out the blue color and made the overall piece look richer.  The final step was to find some new handles, so I was off to Hobby Lobby! ( Before I started anything, I filled in the old screw holes with wood filler and sanded them down so they were hidden.)   Here's the finished project: