a table makeover.

In Mr. Spouse's and my continuous effort to become true adults, we decided that when we move to la nueva casita, we wanted our bedside tables to be a bit more matchy-matchy. I am not at all a fan of the bedroom "suite" (sorry, Rooms to Go), but I do like pieces to at least resemble each other if I'm going to use them as a pair. Our present condition of no-matchy-matchy simply stems from a lack of a desire to buy something that we truly don't need at this time and just using what we had to make it work. Currently, Mr. Spouse's side of the bed dons a lovely rustic, Aspen-esque table something like this:

While my bedside table is a dark stained, cleaner-looking table like this:

Do these tables function as bedside tables? Absolutely. Do they give off the aura that we have put a tremendous deal of thought and energy into selecting them? Eh.

But as I started moving things around in preparation for the packing process to begin, I realized that we had two tables that were rather similar, but I had never noticed them being similar because I've always had them in two separate rooms!

I mean, talk about long-lost twins! Obviously, some paint would be required to make them truly sisters, but they are pretty similar. This would mean I could have my newly matchy-matchy bedside tables for the mere cost of paint!

Boom goes the dynamite.

I started out by sanding the tables with my favorite sanding block to even out the thicker spots of black paint and even out some imperfections on the brown table.

I then applied a coat of Zinnser primer to both tables:

Then the fun started: choosing the paint! I knew that I wanted the table color to tie in with our bedding, but I did not want the tables to blend in with the bed. I knew that if I pulled an accent color from our Pottery Barn shams...

...the tables would be in sync with our bedding without getting lost. I really honed in on a muddy, greyish brown used on leaves in our shams:

I retrieved several paint swatches from Home Depot, and ultimately decided on Martha Stewart's Brook Trout:

I loved the grey tint in this color - it really softened up the brown and made the color a bit more peaceful (namaste) - perfect for a bedroom! As I'm also currently crushing on a good, lacquered, shiny finish, I bought the quart of Brook Trout in high gloss. Yummy!

The paint went on effortlessly. After half an hour and one coat, we were looking good! Still streaky and brush-stroke laden, but headed in the right direction.

After two coats, the only part of each table that still looked streaky were the tops:

The bottom and legs did not require three full coats, only touch-ups, but I did apply a full third coat to the top of the tables to insure a nice, even coverage. After letting the tables have plenty of time to dry and cure, I applied two very thin coats of polyurethane since these tables will be pretty high-use.

After several days of drying (better safe than sorry with that cure-time!), I am in table love!

I love, love, love the high-gloss look on the twisted legs - it really draws your eye to those details!

The smooth, lacquered table top will be the perfect contrast to our softer, cozy bedding!

• Rather than buying two completely new tables, I used pieces I already have and just gave them a little facelift!
• While the process did take a bit of "wait time", the actual hands-on time was minimal.
• Mr. Spouse and I can finally enjoy being unified not only in our marriage, but also in our furniture - if that's not wedded bliss, I just don't know what is.