In honour of Breast Cancer Awareness month, we just had to do a post on pink chalk paint furniture. Yesterday we shared how to chalk paint vinyl – the matching sewing stool to this mid century modern sewing table.
Pink might not be a colour that comes to mind for everyday items – unless you’re painting furniture for a little girl’s room! But look how amazing this hot pink colour, called Peony, looks on this mid century modern upcycled sewing table and stool!
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Here’s how it started out. The condition doesn’t look too bad, right? But on closer inspection, there’s missing veneer on this side panel. And even worse veneer offences on the inside! That means will be taking it all apart to repair and paint.
I just want to remove all the lifting veneer and have a clean slate, since we’re painting with chalk paint anyway. From past experience, I know that the veneer on this mid century piece is glued with hide glue and regular glue won’t stick to that. But Hubs wants to try something new to make repairs (which we’ll get to further ahead).
Watch this Video!
Materials for Pink Chalk Paint Furniture
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- Dixie Belle Chalk Mineral Paint – Peony
- Dixie Belle Chalk Mineral Paint – Driftwood
- White Lightning (to clean)
- Frog Tape
- Fine spray water mister
- Mini Angle Brush
- Dixie Belle Gemstone Mousse – Golden Gem (for a limited time, Dixie Belle is offering a free gemstone mousse in their garnet colour with every $100 purchase)
- Clear Coat – Satin
- BOSS Primer
- Heavy Duty Lazy Susan
- DeVilbiss HVLP Paint Sprayer
- Titebond Liquid Hide Wood Glue
- Glue syringe
- C-clamps
- Painter’s tape
Ready for Disassembly
We find it easier to put furniture upside down on a table when taking things apart; it will save your back!
Everything comes off easily. For instance, the legs are just screwed into these brackets.
However, as we’re taking them off we discover 4 missing screws. So weird how it can even still be standing with half the screws; we’ll have to replace them!
Our best tip when taking apart furniture is to put all the loose parts into Ziplocs so they stay together. Since we tend to work on a few different pieces at a time, we also label the larger bag with the name of the paint so we can remember which parts go with which piece of furniture! They all start to look alike after a while :).
At this point, Hub detoured and tried out different primers on the leg. The one we decide on for this project is BOSS from Dixie Belle Paint because it does a great job of preventing bleed through. It comes in white, clear and grey.
I’m always fascinated by the function of hardware. If you’ve ever looked at sewing table hardware, it’s quite ingenious!
This hinge has a pop up button to help secure the arm that shoots out the side to support the left leaf of the table top. Just remember to not be in the vicinity of that side when it pops out; I caught quite a scare the first time I opened one and it came flying out :).
Fixing Veneer
Since one side of the veneer is already gone, I go ahead and remove the veneer from the other side too. If you’re lucky enough to get an old dried out piece of furniture like this sewing table, the veneer just pops right off with the help of a putty knife.
The side panels get sanded down to remove the old glue.
This is one example of the rest of the veneer – on the inside of the table – that Hubs wants to fix.
He likes to play with new products and he found a modern equivalent of the old hide glue that you don’t have to mix from scratch or heat! It conveniently comes in a squeeze bottle.
To help with tasks like re-gluing veneer, Hubs is a huge fan of making jigs. For this piece, he simply cuts a piece of wood to fit in between the braces so he can clamp down the veneer on the inside of the cabinet.
First he tapes off the areas where glue is likely to ooze.
He has to get glue into every crack so it lies flat again.
A syringe helps get the glue into where it needs to be. We wrote a post on repairing veneer that’s a good read if you have other issues to fix!
Once glued, sandwich on both side with scrap pieces of wood to prevent denting the wood of your furniture. Let it dry according to package directions.
Spray Paint Pink Chalk Paint Furniture
After all the repairs are done, we spray both the primer and the paint. If you’ve never used an HVLP paint gun before, check our our post on how to paint using a spray gun. Hubs has great tips covering the basics.
However, if you’ve sprayed before, but never with chalk paint, this post on how to paint with chalk paint might be of interest. Head to the section on How to Spray Chalk Paint for details on how to dilute it for a paint sprayer. Or you can watch our previous video on how we spray painted the 3rd coat of chalk paint and clear coat satin on the matching stool.
Mid Century Modern Sewing Table
While Hubs is spray painting, I head inside to do a special treatment on the front skirt of the table. The wood has a pretty grain and I think the routed lines are cool, but it’s about to be even better!
I start by taping off a diamond (I’ll be painting on the outside of the tape line. Notice I also cut thin strips of tape to fill in the routed lines so I don’t accidentally paint those. Although I’m using a pencil below, a blunt knitting needle would be better so you don’t accidentally get pencil marks on the wood.
My wood piece is on top of a lazy Susan covered with brown paper.
The lazy Susan is my favourite tool when it comes to painting. That’s because I can easily turn my work as I apply the paint.
Here, I’m using Dixie Belle Mineral Paint in a colour called Driftwood.
If you are concerned that the wood might bleed through your paint, as often happens with lighter colours like Driftwood, use BOSS primer to prevent that before chalk painting.
Once I have two coats of grey chalk paint on, I carefully lift all the tape.
Beautiful crisp lines! Now it’s outside again so Hubs can finish spraying Dixie Belle’s Peony on the bottom edge and clear coat it with a satin finish.
Restore the Hardware
The Hardware is pretty dirty so we check out our method on how to clean brass hardware. I promise we’re keeping our homemade ketchup for our fries, where it belongs!
Apply Dixie Belle Mousse
Another way to restore brass, after cleaning with soapy water, is to apply some gemstone mousse. Instead of stirring it up to a mousse consistency, I put a little bit on a makeup sponge straight from the lid. Then I apply it onto the metal and rub it in with a finger to even out the tarnish.
It really evens out the tone, yet keeps that aged brass look I love!
Assemble Pink Chalk Paint Furniture
We let the pieces dry for a few days. Then Hubs sprayed a coat of clear satin over the every piece. At this point, I painted the first two coats of the sewing stool by hand and let this sit for several days before re-assembling.
Whenever you makeover a vintage sewing machine and have to take it apart because of repair work, you have to be organized! We have all the hardware pieces in separate bags so we can figure out how to put it back together again!
Fun Fact: Singer Sewing Machine Company was the first company to produce hardware to put furniture pieces together. Up until then, all furniture was assembled wood-to-wood with joinery techniques. It was just a matter of time until someone came along and turned the concept into flat pack furniture, like a certain Swedish company :). But there are no pictograms for these vintage tables, so be sure to take plenty of pictures when you’re taking it apart.
It’s so exciting to see the front go on! The brass hardware will be the final bit of bling to make it pop!
Pretty in Pink
I have to admit; pink has always been my least favourite colour.
But I think the makeover of these two mid century modern pieces may have converted me!
I really love the way Peony looks on these mid century modern pieces; it might even be my favourite upcycle to date!
I’m so thankful to Nancy, the wonderful lady who donated this stool to us so we could complete our vision :).
More Sewing Table Ideas
For more sewing table ideas, check out this drink station, how to refinish a coffee table, this singer sewing table makeover, this pallet diy, how to get smell out of old furniture, this tiered plant stand diy, repairing veneer, and this Hudson’s Bay point blanket inspired upcycle.
Pin Pink Chalk Paint Furniture
Pinning is always welcome and appreciated.
* Dixie Belle Paint provided us with complimentary products but all opinions about these fabulous products are our own.
What a beautiful sewing table desk and matching stool for a lucky young lady or pink loving woman to enjoy. I’m a sucker for mid-century modern furniture so this is right up my alley. The mismatched stool looks like it came with the sewing table. Beautiful job on these pieces, Sara and hubby!
Thank you – I will pass that along to Hubs :)!
I’m a sucker for MCM too! We now have tons of sewing tables so I’m officially banning the purchase of any more but of course I’ll make an exception if Hubs finds another mid century modern one -lol. This was such a fun little project. If we had room, I’d definitely think twice about selling it but the money is better off going to charity!
Very pretty Sara you did a great job.
Thanks so much Anita!
I love the hint of MCM to this project.
Me too; I can never get enough MCM 🙂
Pretty in pink definitely applies to this. It looks amazing. Laura
Thanks so much Laura!
That pink was my sisters favorite color, but like you I was never really a fan, well until now that is. I love how your MCM sewing table and the little matching stool turned out Sara. You and the hubby don’t scrimp on doing it right. So inspiring
So funny, because my sister’s favourite colour is pink too. Her childhood room was pink and I just hated it lol! Saving these old pieces is definitely a labor of love but we enjoy the challenge – and of course keeping then out of landfill!