Before and After: octagonal table and entry mirror

More "before and afters" today!

This sweet little table finally got its makeover. Here's how it started out.

You may recall the post I wrote discussing the possibility of painting the bottom yellow and leaving the top unpainted. Well, I tried it, but the "buttery yellow" turned out more like Big Bird yellow. Seriously, this photo isn't showing how bright it really was.

During the few seconds it took me to walk to the garage and back, my little guy had pulled two chairs up to this table and was contentedly "reading". What a good idea! It's the perfect size for kids!

Anyway, I decided to try and tone down that yellow with a little white glaze. I think it did the trick.



The top got a couple of coats of Danish Oil to protect the wood but giving it no sheen.

And since that partially-painted base was bugging me, I ended up removing the top and painting the rest of the base yellow as well. (Did you notice that in the photos above? Yeah, that looked weird.)

The top turned very orange when I put the Danish oil on it. You can see the difference in the photo with my son reading.

But I like the rustic quality that it still has. All of the grooves and dents and discolorations that it's earned are still visible, and that's what I wanted.

Next is the mirror that's been hanging in our entry. I wish I'd taken a photo of it hanging up. The entry is really small and tends to get kind of dark, so I thought hanging a mirror in there would help. It does, but since the frame of the mirror is so dark and it hangs above a dark cabinet, the feeling was still kind of, well, dark.



All I did was tape off the mirror to save myself the trouble of having to scrape paint off of it...

...then hit it with a coat of the same white glaze that I'd used on the table above. Using a clean cloth I just wiped away some of the wet glaze to show the surface and give it some depth.

I'm still trying to decide if I like it, or if it needs something else done to it. (Are you noticing a trend of uncertainty with some of my projects lately?)

But it definitely lightens up the space, which is what I wanted.
More "before and afters" to share later!