12 New Things - Bedside Table

Hey ya'll! Remember Sarah Mae's idea of learning 12 New Things?  Well my first month is up and my new thing for September is a goodwill transformation.  Sarah has had a really crazy month and hasn't posted the link up yet, but I figured I might as well post my little project anyway.  I will link up when she does!

My hubby found this loverly little end table...thingy....on the side of the road and brought it home for me! It wasn't exactly what I had in mind for our guest room but it was FREE! 

The top had some pretty good water marks and the "wood" was peeling off in a few places too.

Flash was on in this pic....that's why it looks so much lighter....

This beast was that lovely wood-grain laminate so I gave it a REALLY good sanding with some 220 grit paper.  I've read that some people had trouble getting the paint to adhere so I wanted to make sure mine turned out the first time!

Then I gave it a reaaaaallly good coat of Zinsser Bullseye primer.  This helps the paint to adhere to the cabinet.

When that was dry, I gave it three LIGHT coats of Rustoleum flat black....cause I loooooove all things flat black.  From what I've read, things go a lot better if you do lots of light coats instead of one really heavy one. I also used some leftover nickel spray paint to paint the hinges and handles.

And that's it! I have a feeling I should have done a coat of Minwax to protect it...but I was impatient and wanted to get it into our guest room so I guess we'll see how long it lasts!

Oh and yes, that IS a plastic covering on that lamp shade. That is one of the little lamps I picked up at the thrift store sans light shade so I'm trying out one I found at Wal-mart. I can't decide if it's the right size...too big? Maybe?  Help!

I'm also linking up to Thrifty Decor Chick's Before and After Party

Mirror Redo

Friends, I'd like to announce - I HAVE A MIRROR IN MY BEDROOM! Woooooo! I'm finally starting to fill all the empty walls in our house...slowly but surely.

I got lucky with this one, our very dear friends just moved across the country....the WHOLE country.  Central BC to PEI. No joke.  They put almost everything in their house in a garage sale and gave away what didn't sell. 

TB brought over this gorgeous mirror for my bedroom a few days before they left and it was perfect! It didn't look this purdy when she brought it over though.

I apologize for the pictures.  Try to ignore the reflection.....what you see is our STILL unfinished basement.  A girl's gotta work somewhere.

It was a little dinged up but it's quite ornate....you just can't see it from here...so just trust me.  As I've said before...I'm a little lazy so, no, I didn't take the time to fill the chips.  I just spray painted right over it!  Can't even tell. 

The other lazy thing I didn't do - I didn't take the mirror out from the frame.  In hindsight that would've been the smart way to go...but I just covered it with newspaper and sprayed away.  I already posted about how that worked out....or didn't work out.  You would think for my very first redo I would be cautious and take all the proper steps.... lets be honest...that's just not me. And I'm ok with that!

I tried to take a picture of the mess that's UNDER the newpaper

 but it didn't really work....You'll have to just believe me.

Oh and that gorgeous canvas you can see in the reflection of mirror in my room....yeah, I got that one for free too! Ok well not totally free, I gave EA some money 'cause I couldn't believe she would paint me something that HUGE and that BEAUTIFUL for free.  I just have to show you a close up.  It's 4 ft. x 3 ft!

I'm in looooooooove!  Now I just need to work on putting nice things on my dresser!  What do YOU have on your dresser? Any ideas?

I'm linkin up to: