Metallic Orange Side Table Redo

My mom and dad got me a side table for my birthday this year. Now, before you go, "oh wow, what boring gift," know that my mom saw me eying it at a resale shop days before my birthday. She knew I wanted to jazz it up and make it pretty. It was quite boring amongst all the other old and out of date furniture pieces, but the storage capacity and trim detail was exactly what I was looking for.

 

I started out by sanding the glossy finish, roughing it up enough so the paint would stick. Then I applied a primer. Honestly I should have done a couple of coats of primer, but mistakes help us learn.

 

 Then I applied my color coat, the orange. It's actually the same color and paint that I used on our walls in the house. Just a note, orange doesn't cover well, and might do better with a gray primer.

While this looks fantastic on it's own, I wanted the color toned down a little. So I added a copper wash over the orange color. I just brushed it on, feathering it when necessary.

It gave me this awesome, almost metallic orange color. I painted the face plates and hinges copper, which turned out to give the perfect amount of contrast to the orange/copper of the cabinet. Then I added the crystal knobs that I had salvaged from my great-grandmother's old house.

Voila!