How to paint wood veneer

Remember The Project to end all projects? Well, I haven't stopped working on it. I have stopped blogging about it because cleaning out my kids' rooms just wasn't that interesting and I'm currently bogged down in cleaning out my memorabilia (a PROJECT in and of itself...and a post for another time! Look forward to some posts about baby Sarah in the near future and GET. EXCITED.)

Meanwhile, as I work my way through my house room by room, I've also taken on some design projects I've wanted to tackle forever and just haven't. First, I tackled the wall in my kitchen. Next up? Our entertainment center.

This is what it looked like:

Big and dark and squat and sort of ugly. Inspired by all the painted dressers I saw on Pinterest, I thought I might go that route and started scouring thrift stores around town.

No luck.

Finally, at a furniture consignment store, I found a modern TV stand a little bit taller and MUCH prettier than the one I have now. Only one problem...it was espresso brown. Another dark TV stand. I wasn't going to do it.

The only solution was to paint it. I looked at a lot of spray paint tutorials online but decided I wasn't wiling to risk it and it wasn't going to give me the smooth finish I was looking for. 

Instead, I (what we call in the South) "jerryrigged" the process and adapted it to my own (somewhat lazy) purposes. 

First up, I sanded the heck out of it with a rotary sander. One of the best tips I got online was using tack cloth to take off all the sand residue and that stuff worked like a charm.  

Next up, I took some notes from the spray painting idea and used a spray primer - Rust-Oleum Painter's Touch 2X Primer for anyone wanting to know. I probably should have gotten the coat more even but it worked really well otherwise. 

Next up, I painted. A lot. Three coats a lot. I chose Martha Stewart's Salt Water because Martha Stewart is PAINT GENIUS. Seriously, all the colors are awesome and they all turn out how you expected. How does she do that!?! I got a quart in flat interior latex and slathered it on. 

I was hoping to skip this final step but alas, it was not to be. I also painted on two coats of Minwax Polycrylic Gloss Protective Finish and we were good to go! Because I'm lazy, I painted right over the metal hardware and then scraped it out with steel wool when I was finished! 

I mean when I'm right, I'm right. How much better does that look!?!

~ Sarah Stewart Holland