Sage Green Side Table Makeover

Over the last couple of months I’ve done quite a few projects with sage green paint. I only have one quart but it can stretch pretty far. This is project number 6. I’ll do a recap at the end of this post.

I picked up this nightstand / side table at my local Goodwill. Nice solid wood construction, dovetailed drawers, no chips, and it’s main selling feature, it was $8.

The top did have some wear and tear, totally reasonable for a 50ish year old piece.

Just about every piece of thrifted furniture needs some kind of repair.

This was the underside of one of the drawers, a crack along the center drawer glide and the back piece of wood had split and come loose from the drawer.

Super easy fix. Use wood glue wherever the wood pieces have come loose and clamp to hold until the wood glue has dried.

I’m doing a natural wood finish on the top of this side table and the base so all of the old stain and varnish had to be sanded off.

For the remainder of the side table, the parts that are going to be painted, a scuff sand will work just as well. Just enough sanding to allow the paint something to hold onto.

Remove all your sanding dust with a lint free cloth. For the top and the base I’m giving the raw wood one coat of a tan wash.

Water down tan paint about half and half paint to water. Paint on your piece and immediately wipe off with a paper towel using long strokes to get a smooth streak free finish. Work quickly, you don’t want the paint to dry.

If the new drawer pulls you’ve picked out don’t fit into your existing holes you will have to fill with wood putty or Bondo and sand smooth. Redrill the holes the width of your new hardware.

Time to paint. This color is sage green by Chalk it.

If your drawers are stained, as this one was, consider drawer liner or self adhesive wallpaper.

I’m using wallpaper. Dry fit your wallpaper to the drawer bottom before pulling off the backing.

When pulling off the backing, start at one edge of the drawer and pull off the backing slowly as you’re simultaneously adhering the wallpaper to the drawer bottom and smushing out any air bubbles as you go.

Doesn’t that look better than the staining?

After the tan wash I finished the top and the lower edge with Minwax Polycrylic, a paint on polyurethane with water clean up. Now I have a beautiful, clean , mark free, wood top.

Dovetailed drawers are always a sign of well made construction.

New brass cup handles update the piece.

And now for the rest of my sage green quart projects. You’ll notice that they are all for kid’s rooms. While sage green doesn’t have to be just for kid’s rooms, I think the soft color is just made for the younguns. I may even have enough paint in the container for one more project.

Just click on any of the pictures and you’ll be taken right to the project.