Coffee Tables

How would I redo a set of end tables and a coffee Table?

I am moving into an apartment for this fall semester, and my parents have this let of tables I would like to take with me but they are pretty scratched and I was wanting to redo them. They aren’t real wood they are made out of that particle board stuff. How would I go about either restaining them or painting them?

Particle board has a bad rep for a reason…. it’s tough to do anything with!

If it gets wet, it will swell and begin to flake, mold, and smell…. so you have to be pretty careful with painting.

You could try one of the following ideas depending upon your creative ability, budget, and taste:

a) spraypaint the whole set glossy black with car enamel. Black goes with everything, and the enamel will hide a multitude of sins.
b) spraypaint the edges brown to match a vinyl peel-n-stick woodlook top – Mactac makes some pretty decent facsimiles these days
c) check your local waste transfer station, parents’ garage, or recycling centre for some old house paint. Often comes in custom mixed colours and half a can will do you.
d) buy some specialty paper such as ‘hanji’, ‘rice paper’ or ‘mulberry fiber paper’ from an art store. Use a thin coat of glue designed for paper so that the stuff won’t wrinkle and ‘decoupage’ the tops and/or shelves (often those are in the worst shape, and with them covered the edges and sides visually vanish.
e) Paint them any dark colour (don’t use a water-based paint, and don’t put it on too thickly!) Let that first coat dry. Rub the pieces all over with a white candle, especially the edges. You’ll get a streaky build-up of wax. Then paint over in your favorite colour. The wax will resist the paint (remember doing this in kindergarden with crayons?) and the darker colour will show through. Gives it an antiqued, vintage look, with no sanding necessary (as sanding does NOT work on particle board)
f) use peel-n-stick fabric (available at craft stores) to recover the tops – or spray glue and any thin fabric that you like the pattern of

Hope those ideas help! Enjoy your new apartment…

Edited: sorry, didn’t mean to diss Sensible Man’s ideas there! He is quite right – sanding is fine to rough up a laminated surface, BUT you cannot sand any edges or unprotected ‘raw’ particle board as it will just flake away.

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