The story of my end tables

Once long, long ago there lived these black lacquer end tables.

There was a pair of them and they moved from Aunty "D's" house untill she kicked them out and they moved in with "mother". Then "mother" kicked them out and they ended up at MY house. I actually really liked them, they were asian looking and they were FREE!

Only problem is they were very visibly worn and beaten.

I jumped in to rescue this thrifty find and I used some paint remover gel.

I painted it on and it immediately made the paint bubble.

It looked so weird and creepy I had to touch it... take my word for it, you don't want to do that.

The stuff burns! Then I took a scraper to it and the laquer just pealed right off.

It didnt completely come off so I had some sanding to do to make it smooth.

Ok I'm being nice, I had a freaking ton of sanding to do, I'm sick of sanding!

I spent almost 4 hours sanding one day!

BY HAND!

The problem with this baby is that he's got a ton of curves and round edges and corners so my hand sander was completely useless.

Ok, fast forward like 2 weeks and I finally got the darn thing all sanded and ready to go. I even used some putty to fix up some of the busted up edges. Then I primed and painted in this soft green color. It's called Dried Thyme. Orignally I saw {this} gorgeous side table redo and loved the color, that one is called Rosemary. When I went to the Sherwin Williams store the paint swatch looked too dark and I was afriad it was going to be too dark next to my black couches.

Here's what it looks like:

A bit lighter than I expected, should have gone with the Rosemary!

I still can... without guilt that is. I bought their sample paint and it's only $5 and you get so much paint! I probably could have painted a small room with the amout they give you.

I moved him into his old spot, sorry for the dark images it is about 10pm when I took the pix.

So lets see before and after side by side:

Yup, theres two of them and now I just need to do that whole process all over again! Ugh...

Anyone want to help? If you come here and do all the sanding for me, I'll put you up :-)

Linking to the parties {HERE}