Long before I even moved into my house, people started giving me stuff they no longer wanted. For instance, my aunt gave me a couple of end  tables I wasn’t particularly fond of but they did the job. But this week I decided it was time to start tackling some of the furniture rehab projects I’ve been planning.

Tables before being painted, but after a light sanding.

First up on the agenda were the tables. They have some weird nooks and crannies on the legs, so I figured spay painting was the way to go. I turned to a blog post about spray painting furniture on Young House Love for advice. I wasn’t really sure what color I wanted to paint the tables, and there aren’t that many Rustoleum Universal colors to choose from. I knew I wanted to do my patio table one of the hammered finishes, but I didn’t know what I wanted the end tables to look like. I didn’t think glossy would go with my other furniture, but there weren’t many satin options. I wasn’t convinced the metallic options were good for these tables but then I figured, “Hey, it’s only paint!” So my cousin and I picked up some of the “Aged Copper” paint and went to town on the end tables. 

If we messed them up, I figured I could sell them at a tag sale and then just go find better options at another tag sale.

But the skies were threatening us! Thunder rumbled and the occasional raindrop found its way to us. The rumbles seemed like empty threats so we eventually grabbed a tarp, made a lean-to in the dog’s pen, put down some cardboard and got to work!!

The new “Aged Copper” look.

Really, it couldn’t have been easier, though it ended up being more expensive than I’d thought. It took three cans of paint — at nearly $8 a pop — to do the two tables. It’s still only $24 for two like-new tables, but I still don’t love the design of the tables so I would have liked it to be a bit cheaper.

The table looks a bit more  gold in these photos than in real life. I actually quite like the  way the legs look, and am considering repainting the top and the shelf on the bottom a different color — maybe black. I think it might make more sense that way.

In any case, my first spray paint make over seems to have been a general success and I would definitely use it again.