Painting Laminate Furniture and Picture Frames

I am finally getting to the final project of the three that I showed you a few weeks ago- the table.I have had this table for almost ten years now. When Eric got it for me we were poor college students and this was the perfect table to help furnish our little apartment. I loved it! But over the years my love for it has waned a bit. And my new love affair with Pinterest made me realize a little paint could make a big difference. I love the antique blues and whites- but the lines of this piece definitely called for a more modern look, so I chose black.

This piece is laminate- a piece of real wood glued on top of fake wood or particle board- so I couldn't just slap some paint on it.

I did some research and used Zinsser Bulls Eye 1-2-3 Primer. This primer does not require any sanding, can be used with any type of paint on top and dries in about 1 hour. At the store the associate asked if I wanted the primer tinted since I was going to be painting black over it- I declined though as I knew I would be using this primer for multiple projects.
I took the table out to our court yard and started painting- I started priming the top first as I was just excited to get started- but this was a mistake. Since the top was wet, I had to lay on my back to do the underside of the table. If I had flipped the table over first and done the underside, I could have turned it upright to do the top.
I waited the hour and sure enough- it was dry. For my color I used Behr's- Black Suede- I got it in semi gloss. I bought a quart which was way more than enough. I used a regular big brush and a small 1" brush for corners. When I was painting- I did remember to flip it over and paint the underside first- made life so much easier!

And the result...
The table was a bit tacky for about three days, so we waited to put anything on it until it felt fully cured.

And if you notice the picture frames are different- since my table was now black- I didn't really want black frames on a black table. So I busted out two of my favorite acrylic paint colors

Americana French Grey Blue and Avocado

I first did a very fast sand job on each frame- the frame with my oldest two (green one) was much more plasticy so I sanded that one a bit more. I did a fast paint job since I wanted some black to show through. After the paint was dry I went back with a fine grain sander and roughed them up a bit.

and this was the result
I am very happy with how it turned out and am loving the "new" table I now have.

I am linking this post up at the following crafting blogs