Painting My Studio Table

When I told my husband I wanted to transform the back room into a studio, part of that vision included a long table. I wanted something long enough to hold supplies and give me space to work on projects. Sure enough, my husband showed up with an old wooden school table that fit the space perfectly.

The studio table had one problem: A coat of ugly brown paint. I knew brown would better hide paint spills and other work-related mishaps. However, the color created a darkness in the space that just didn’t inspire creativity. It was just ugly.

I didn’t want to invest a ton of effort and time into painting the table since I knew it would take a beating, so I went for the no-sand chalk paint approach. I picked up a can of tintable Valspar chalk paint from Lowes and had them mix it in white.

Having no intention of making life harder for myself by painting back into the deep built-in shelves, I taped those off the best I could at the outset.

I hadn’t extensively used chalk paint before this point. Its thickness made it a challenge to work with it at first. The first coat went on easy enough, but I kind of panicked once it dried. It just seemed like it was going to take so many coats to cover the brown.

By the time I completed the second coat on the studio table, all my fears were gone. The paint more than covered the brown. I would’ve stopped at two, but I noticed that in some areas, the color pink was seeping through the paint. I found this odd considering it was brown underneath. The same thing happened when my mom painted the dresser in my son’s room. I didn’t think much about it and thought maybe a third coat would cover up the mysterious pink.

Only after I applied the third coat did I figure out what was happening. The pink was the tannin from the wood bleeding through. Turns out that it’s a relatively common problem, especially with mahogany. The quickest combatant is a primer or sealer that keeps the tannin or other wood stain from showing through the paint. Being that I only figured it out after the fact, I filed that one away to remember for future projects. Most of the pink that shows through (after three coats!) is in relatively inconspicuous locations.

I used Valspar’s wax to seal the paint, but I wish I would’ve gone for polyurethane. Maybe it would’ve probably protected it a just bit better.

It’s been almost two years since that paint job. It’s survived paint drips, the stabs of knives and scissors, and a toddler’s errant crayon and marker. All of the stains on the top remind me of being in a legitimate artist’s studio, and I just love that. It’s a visual reminder of all the beauty I continue to try to bring to the world around me.