Recently I came across these plain little end tables. Not much to look at… they were actually really dated looking. I don’t know why, but they really reminded me of parquet flooring (?) But they were made of very, very heavy wood, and I was in deep love with the chunky legs!

So, I started with my SOP, Standard Operating Procedure:

1. Clean thoroughly with liquid TSP substitute
2. Sand lightly with 220 grit sandpaper (Hey, not trying to remove any finish here, just open it up a little)
3. Prime with Zinsser Cover Stain (something else I am in deep love with!!)
4. Make any necessary wood repairs (sometimes before priming, sometimes after- depending on the situation)
5. PAINT- PAINT- PAINT!!!!
6. Finishing Technique

For these reLoved End Tables, I chose this gorgeous shade of pale blue. I’m really bummed, that you can’t see just how beautiful this color is, because the lighting in my kitchen SUCKS!! But, you’ll just have to trust me on this

After they were all painted, the tops seemed so, plain. Call me crazy, by I really sort of missed that dated parquet pattern! You could see the direction of the wood grain in the freshly painted tops, so I decided to add some glaze, to play up and really bring that pattern back out.

I think that glazing technique added some much needed character, after all,  I wasn’t trying to go from dated to dull!! I carried the glazing to the rest of the table base and the chunky legs. I like to think of this look as “perfectly aged” Just enough to bring out the details!!

And here they are! Refreshed End Tables…

And the glazing technique on top…

And look what I found… One lonely picture taken of the end table outside, so you can get a better idea of just how pretty this blue truly is. See how awful my kitchen lighting is??!

So what do you think? I’d love to hear your comments!!