SIDE TABLE MAKEOVER

Another week has passed, and it really seems as though we might get an early spring this year. The sun is finally shining more here, and I feel so ready to keep working away on all of my little projects, photos, and redecorating.
I hope everyone had a lovely weekend! On Saturday we shopped around a few places for fun; one was Michaels to pick out pieces to frame some advertisements Troy has from old magazines (old like from the 1930’s-1960’s). He is in marketing and advertising, and wanted some cool art for inspiration at his office. It was so fun to help him put a little something together just for him. Then on Sunday we relaxed most of the day and did some home inspiration planning! We are gearing up to buy our first home together hopefully this summer or later this year. It will most likely be a new build, so we are having fun nailing down things that we really want to incorporate.

I thought I would share a little project with you that I was working on and finished a couple of weeks ago. It is super simple, but has made our living room brighter and more cohesive in it’s style.
We have slowly (slowly) been adding pieces of furniture and other decor that make our place ours together, but we still have a few things around that were Troy’s from his bachelor days, and though they may be functional, they are definitely not our style anymore. Tell me we’re not the only ones with interesting items that don’t really work in our home? Haha.
In our living room we have been using two black, somewhat modern looking ikea side tables. They hadn’t bothered me too much these almost 4 years we have been married, even if I had brought up new side tables every now and again, but then all of a sudden I had a day where I just couldn’t take it anymore and decided to paint the tables white! (Anyone else have those moments?) That way, if I couldn’t get new side tables just yet, at least they would work in our space for now.

I’m only showing one of the side tables, as the other is just hidden over in the corner. I thought I would focus on the one people see when they come into our condo.
Here are the before pictures:

As you can see, there are also a ton of chips in the legs from moving and regular usage that means these needed a paint job anyways! So bad, haha.

Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, here is the table after!

Seriously though, how much better does that look?! I can’t believe I didn’t do this sooner. All I did was sand down the table a bit (well, Troy did that part), and gave it 3 coats of some Valspar paint from Lowes - I had it mixed to match Benjamin Moore CC20 decorator’s white. Valspar is good quality and saves you some coin compared to B. Moore on a minor project like this. After it was dry I gave it a matte, wood-finish varathane top coat, and voila!

I did a little post on that bench in the backgorund in fall of 2014. It’s from Winners, surprisingly! I still enjoy it in our home.

As for a couple of other sources. The ampersand pillow and wicker basket are both from Chapters (Indigo). The cream knit throw, as well as my little spring plant, are from the beloved Ikea. Also, I have been on the hunt for what seems like ages for a new lamp for this side table (I have to say, I really don’t like the current lamp I have here), but I am having trouble finding the perfect one. I saw one online at Target, but of course we no longer have target in Canada and they won’t ship it to me! Sad. But alas, I will survive.

Coming in to our unit and seeing a pretty white piece of furniture here rather than an imposing dark one that doesn’t fit with the space has been so nice!

I think this little project has made the style of this space more congruent, and overall brighter and more airy. I would love to hear what you think about this simple side-table makeover! I hope you all have a wonderful day, and thanks for stopping by!

— Rachel, at The Porch Light Cottage