Marley Craig
I had never used gel stain or chalk paint before and I had heard such great things about both of them so I thought giving this end table a makeover would be the perfect project to test them out. I found this end table at a garage sale for two bucks and even though I wasn’t crazy about the stain color and it was pretty beat up I liked the structure of it, so it is the perfect piece to makeover.
I stripped all the varnish off my kitchen table and it was quite the job so I was anxious to see if the gel stain would work. You can see that the top of the table was in rough shape, but I didn’t do any sanding and basically zero prepping (besides just wiping it clean).
I used a foam brush and applied the gel stain directly on top of the side table. Apply a thin layer of the varnish, I used Minwax Polycrylic Clear Semi-Gloss, with a high-quality synthetic bristle brush in the direction of the wood grain.
Use a light hand when applying the protective finish, I always imagine I am brushing varnish on a thin sheet of paper. I absolutely love how my little end table turned out, it adds so much character to my living room.
