What I love the most about Ikea furniture is that is so versatile that you can do anything you want from it, and still have a lot of room for improvement.
And you don’t lose a fortune in case you don’t like how your projects ends, considering the fact that you won’t spend a fortune to buy this type of furniture.
The black Lack coffee table that I’ve bough from Ikea a while ago had some ugly stains that I could not remove. Those stains were a memory from a pizza dinner with my friends. The pizza was too hot, we were to focused on eating it, the coffee table was too weak to resist without staining. The final result of the evening was a happy bunch of folks, and a screwed coffee table.
But I put my creativity to work, bought some paint and varnish, and a few hours later here’s what I got! A piece of art with a very personal touch!
This is What You Need
- Lack coffee table from Ikea or any other coffee table that needs an update
- Metallic acrylic paint
- Varnish
- wax crayon for outlining
- a lot of patience and a spark of inspiration
One Step at a Time
Drawing a contour is the first thing to do. Using a white wax crayon, I drew the arabesque so it would cover the ugly white stains that I wanted to hide.
Later I discovered that the wax crayon, which was the easiest to get at the time, prevents the acrylic paint from stepping out of contour. Learning by doing, right?
Second, you have to fill in the contours with color. I used metallic acrylic paint in 3 different colors – blue grey, gold, and champagne. You can hardly see the difference while they are wet, but believe me that the final effect worth all the money!
There is one more thing to keep in mind when crafting this project, and I have to admit I have learned it the hard way. To cover the whole table with patterns, you need to start painting from the center to the margins, otherwise you would have to deal with an uncomfortable position that you keep for hours while working on the project.
The Second Coat
10 minutes after applying the first coat of paint, which dried really quickly, here comes the second one. Oh, boy, I really enjoyed doing this!
You’ll see the color changing when the paint is drying, and the result might surprise you. 🙂 When using metallic paint, the final result would look hammered if you apply the paint in short moves.
…and the Varnish
A few hours later, clean the dust, and varnish the painted table to give it a polished look. Let the table dry for a few hours in a well ventilated place (beware of the flies or dust around it!), then apply a second coat of varnish.
Later edit: More than one year later, my coffee table is still looking great:
That is such a super cool idea Gabi. I would not have known it was an ikea piece at all, it is so beautiful.
Thank you, Mary! I really love your idea about covering the water marks on your table, and I will recommended it to my Romanian readers. you can’t imagine how often things like this happen around the house!
Unbelievable Gabi, when I saw the first picture I thought you’d used wallpaper, I would never have guessed that you hand painted this piece of gorgeousness. Stunning job and those metallic paints do look amazing
I am happy you like it. 🙂 this is one of my favorite projects of all times.
It came out really nice! Thank you for inspiration! I have IKEA computer desk that has some scratches. So this would be a nice remedy!
Thank you! This project doesn t require much skills, and it is really easy to do. Let me know if you need help with the pattern. Good luck! 🙂