All of the furniture in our flat is second-hand or rescued from freecycle sites or even dumps. We bought our table and chairs for £20 from a Facebook selling page a couple of years ago - a basic wooden set from Ikea. It was originally used as our dining table but since I started working from home, it has become my desk.
I have been wanting to upcycle these for a while but kept putting it off. Turns out it was a pretty easy job which I completed in a couple of days and, according to my son I am now the "best designer in the world."
It was a simple task of painting the table legs, chairs and edging. For this I bought paint from a local shop called Studio 221 in Caterham - the paint is absolutely lush to use, the coverage is amazing. The brand is called Fusion mineral paint and I used Pebble which is a very pale grey colour, the pots look small but one small pot covered 4 chairs, the table legs and a cabinet. The coverage is so good there was no need to sand the table down.
I edged the table top with Fusion mineral paint in Midnight Blue. The table top has been covered with a sticky back plastic - so it is a vinyl Moroccan tile effect in Faro. I bought this role for £12 on eBay the role covered the whole table top with a little left over and was very easy to apply.
As I had a whole pot of Midnight Blue left I painted our back wall and added some new prints in frames. Again, these were all found on eBay. The unit was being dumped from an office, again an orangey looking pine one, we have had it in the corner of the room for a few years and I have always hated it. This took two coats of Pebble paint to cover and I bought a new rose gold cup handle from Knobbles and Bobbles.
This part of the room was often a dumping ground for toys - plus the back wall was very busy looking - it now feels much more grown up and calm and although the Midnight Blue is very dark, I am actually loving it! This is how it looked before, I painted it to look shabby as I liked this style at the time.
The rest of our flat also needs a good lick of paint which I will gradually get on with over the coming months but in the meantime, I have to say I am pretty impressed with this mini makeover.
Both of the above cabinets were also "rescued" both completely free and both repainted by moi. I do find painting very therapeutic and I am sure this won't be the last thing I paint.
If you'd like to see my cherry blossom drawers upcycle have a little look at the link, I still would love to do the wardrobe.