color dipped furniture and DIY

Color dipped furniture is something I've enjoyed lately. It's a fun spin on the color-blocking trend in the fashion and design world, but it's not too crazy or permanent (especially if the piece is inexpensive--I find it's best to execute trends these ways). 

Here are some fun examples:

{click on image for source}

This one showcases inverse dipped leg as well, on the painted chair hanging from the wall. It also showcases a beautiful strawberry long-haired dachshund, my favorite animal on the planet (as in dachshunds in general, not just strawberry or long-haired ones).

You can have fun with it too--it doesn't have to be solid!

You get the idea. A google search loads tons of examples. It's easy and it's fun. You can pretty much color dip anything with legs. What about me, Dana? I have legs. Can you color dip me? (Anyone pick up on that reference????) 

Onto the good stuff...

So one day, we were meandering about town through the back-sides of buildings and alleyways, and low and behold, a side-of-the-road pile of stuff with a "merry christmas" yard sign in front (which I hope was an intended pun by the leaver of the stuff). Most of it wasn't even trashy! There really are some benefits to living amongst rich people, I guess.

And I picked out this little gem.

A perfectly good, perfectly usable little table, just awaiting some TLC. 

Now enter my color dipped DIY segment of this post....

This little guy was just begging to be color dipped. Really, I wanted to stain the whole thing to give it a richness, but you can see that the top is nothing more than weathered particle board. So I decided to paint the whole thing and then color dip the legs. 

I went with white and gold for two reasons: 1. I like the color combo, and 2. Those were the only usable spray paint/paint colors I had to use (besides yellow and cream, whose presence were a mystery to me--I mean really? Cream?).

And here's the end product:

Please excuse the uneven paint lines at the wall trim!!! Painters tape turned out to be not as great as they make it sound (I'm much better with a good angled brush). We've yet to get around to finding out what color the trim is and correcting those obnoxious paint lines. Even designers have houses that stay in a state of half-finished...in fact, I think we're worse because we are always putting our clients first! 

Looks pretty good, huh?? I really wanted to lacquer the top to give it a smooth finish, but when I found the table, it came with a glass top, so I just cleaned that up, turned the chipped edge to the back, and it looks pretty dang good as is.

I decided not to sand the legs or use too many coats of paint on them. Having the wood grain show through gave it some character. A little rustic-ness to pair nicely with the gold dipped legs. 

Also, for the record, the furniture isn't literally dipped (although I've seen some DIYs that literally dip furniture...guess it depends on how much paint you have and how much of a mess you want to create). I just measured up an equal length on each leg, painted a band around the leg, and filled in the rest with a paint brush. It took no time at all. You could, I suppose, use painters tape, but I don't recommend it (based on the outcome of my trim in the background).

I also used some clear acrylic medium to infill some of the roughness of the particle board on the edge of the top, and then painted it gold as well. It's not totally perfect, but I like the gold band. 

Here's one more look with a before and after:

Such a happy little table. I'll get a nice indoor plant for it eventually (I'm really lacking in the indoor plant department). It was fun, easy, and a great transformation.

Hope that inspires some of you DIYers! 

Until next time!