A Furniture Makeover - Painting A Hall Stand Red

I can't believe how much I love the end result of this makeover.

Hi, I'm Jade, and I'm here to help you create a home you love on a budget through upcycling. Today, we're going to take this Hall stand, give it a complete transformation, and can you believe it, paint it red?

The products and tools I used in this makeover are as follows:

• Red Red Wine Paint - Mint By Michelle - https://mintbymichelle.com/?ref=pblG05s7U24PWx
• Greylead - Mint By Michelle - https://mintbymichelle.com/?ref=pblG05s7U24PWx
• Decoupage paper (AUTUMN) - Mint By Michelle -https://mintbymichelle.com/?ref=pblG05s7U24PWx
• Metallic Gold Wax - Vintage Gold -https://mintbymichelle.com/?ref=pblG05s7U24PWx
• Sepia Timber Stain - Pureco - https://lebellemaison.com/
• Tricleanium Degreaser - https://amzn.to/3ufNl47 (Amazon)
• Paint Brush - Mint By Michelle - https://mintbymichelle.com/?ref=pblG05s7U24PWx
• Makita Professional Sander - https://amzn.to/3SG0c9r
• Makita Battery Sander Skin & Battery - https://amzn.to/3ObE5EP
• Frog Tape - https://amzn.to/3STVeG8

*Some of the above links may be affiliate links. If you purchase a product through the affiliate links it will not cost you any extra but it will really help us to continue to provide you with great content. We appreciate your support.

Hall tables are one of the easiest pieces of furniture to refinish. They are a really great beginner piece because this entire Furniture flip should take me no more than 5 hours. I started off getting my sander set up. I applied the 80 grit sandpaper and then applied the vacuum attachment so that I could try and minimise the dust. Then I was ready for power and to get sanding.

I used the orbital sander to sand all of the varnish off the top of the table. Sometimes, I like to use a belt sander first to remove the top layer of varnish but because this was a reasonably small space, I decided I was just going to use the orbital sander and work my way up the grits of sandpaper.

Once I was fairly happy with the amount of varnish that had been removed, I swapped the sandpaper from 80 grit to 120 grit and then used the sander again to go over the entire surface where I had sanded to raw. While I had the 120 grit sandpaper on, I also sanded the edge of the top of the table.

There are actually almost two edges on this piece, one that is quite vertical and then one that is on an angle. But I decided what I'm going to do is just sand the one edge that is vertical and then leave the other edge, which I am going to paint.

To be able to do this, I'm just going to apply masking tape to that edge. I've sanded the top back to a raw surface and that is all the sanding I'm going to be doing to get the timber back to raw.

I've only used one sander up to this point so I've sanded the top back with an 80 grit, a 120 grit, and then a 240 Grit. Now all I'm going to do is scuff sand off the body, and do a little bit of repair work.

The mineral paint I'm going to be using for this project doesn't require a primer and I can paint that straight onto the surface, providing that the surface is really thoroughly cleaned. So, I'm going to use my degreaser to give it a nice clean after I've done my scuff sand.

Ideally, I would also do a clean before I do my scuff sand, but in this instance, I'm not really too worried about going through my sandpaper. I'm just going to use one sheet of sandpaper and then if it gets really dirty, I can just discard that sheet of sandpaper.

For the scuff sanding, I'm going to use a 120 grit. So, I'm going to dive into those tasks and then I can get stuck into painting. I pulled it apart, removed the drawers, and then laid it down because it's going to be a little bit easier for me to scuff sand when I have it lying down as a flat surface.

If you're new to refinishing, the idea of this is that you want to get the surface all roughed up because you want to remove any glossy surface there is that's going to cause the paint to not stick to the surface. You'll be able to see as I'm scuff sanding, it's really just taking away that shine and gloss.

The table was a little damaged so I am just going to use the wood filler to fill all the little dints and dings.

This is just the timber mate wood filler. It's really simple to apply. I just apply it with a spatula. If you don't have a spatula, you can even apply it with your fingers. And in some cases when I'm dealing with an edge or a corner, I still use my fingers to apply it.

While the wood filler was drying on the body of the piece, I started pulling the drawers apart. I removed the original hardware, and I'm actually going to reuse this hardware because I think it really works with the piece.

Then, I just grabbed out a piece of hand sandpaper and gave a scuff of sand to the front of the drawers and into all the little grooves. Now that all of the wood filler is dry, I can go back and use a sander to sand off the excess wood filler.

You'll be able to tell when the wood filler is dry because it does change in colour and lightens up quite a fair bit. Now it's time for the deep clean. I just grabbed my bucket, filled it up with a little bit of water, and then grabbed out my Tricleanium Degreaser. I'm just grabbing a handful of the Degreaser, which is a crystal, and then going to mix that into the water and stir it until the crystal dissolves.

If you have sensitive skin, use gloves for this. You're then going to take your cleaner and just give it a nice deep clean. Really, you could use anything to give your furniture a clean as long as what you're using is going to be able to cut through the grime because there is usually quite a lot of grime that has built up on furniture over the years.

I just usually use an everyday household sponge to do the cleaning. You might need a scour if what you are cleaning has got really thick residue on it. But usually, a household sponge is fine. And you're just going to go through and remove all of the sanding dust, and any other grime that is on the piece before painting.

Once it's clean, you're going to want to let it dry because if you try to apply your masking tape before it has dried, your masking tape will not stick to the surface. Make sure it is dry and then use your masking tape to go along and mask off any sections that you do not want to get paint on. For me, that's this difference between where timber meets the excess edge that I'm going to be painting.

Once you've got the masking tape in place, you want to go back over the masking tape with your finger and really press it firmly to make sure it is stuck. Now we're getting to the fun bit. I'm going to give my paint a really good shake and then pop the tin open. You'll be able to see this beautiful red. It's called Red Red Wine by Min by Michelle, and I'll link it down in the description for you because when you see the end result, you're going to fall in love with this red.

It can be really hard to select bright colours to paint with when you haven't seen them in action because you don't know whether you're actually going to like the end result. But I promise you, you're going to like this one.

I'm painting this piece by hand, and when you're painting a hall stand, it is really quick and easy to apply the paint by hand because there's not a lot of surface area that needs to be painted. A lot of people are quite intimidated by a spray gun, but then they're also a little bit hesitant about how long it's going to take to paint something by hand.

This whole piece only took me less than 15 minutes to paint each coat of paint. It was super quick and easy to do. The easiest option would be to paint everything the same red colour, but I wanted to do something a little bit different.

So, I've grabbed this deep grey and I'm going to be using that as a base for the drawers. I'm applying the grey paint to the front of the drawer fronts and then I'm going to be doing something fun with a decoupage paper just to give it a little bit more dimension.

You do not need to do this, especially if this is going to be your first piece. That might be a little bit too difficult for you. You can just paint the entire piece and then add the hardware back on.

I'm going back in now with a second coat of the red paint and applying that straight onto the piece. If you've got paint risers, you can use paint risers to lift the piece up a little bit higher. But in this instance, I've just used some little paint tins that I have repurposed to use to lift my piece up a little bit higher so that I could easily maneuver around it to paint it.

Once the second coat on the body was done, I then applied a second coat of paint onto the drawer fronts. This is how it's currently looking after the two coats of paint. I am going to do one more coat of the red paint, but it's looking pretty good.

I mentioned that I was going to be using the decoupage paper before, but here it is. It's called Autumn by Mint by Michelle. It's a beautiful leaves design, and I'm going to be just using it in a really small way, cutting it up, and then putting it into the insets of the drawer fronts to give it a little bit more pizzazz and something a little bit more unique.

If you're a more experienced furniture artist, this is going to be more up your alley. I'm just getting some rough cuts done so that I can get an approximate size. I'm then going to place it in where I actually want it to go and use my razor blade to cut it to the exact size that I needed to be so that I can glue it down.

I had all those cut to size and had a bit of a lunch break. My paint was dry enough that I could come back in for my third coat of paint on the red. As I mentioned before, it is super quick to apply the paint. Only 15 minutes and it was done.

I then removed all of the masking tape and got the satisfaction of peeling the masking tape off and seeing that nice crisp line. It's honestly one of my favourite parts of furniture flipping.

Now it's time to glue this paper down to the drawer fronts. What I'm going to be using is the decoupage gel, and I'm just going to apply that with a paintbrush. Paint that onto the entire area where I want to apply this. Make sure that it's not too hot of a day because this might dry quicker than I can get my paper stuck down.

If you live in a really hot climate or it is a hot day, you might want to glue a little bit, stick that down, and then add the glue to the next bit. Once you've got the paper in place, you can just use a little bit of Glad Wrap plastic to remove any air bubbles there might be.

I'm going to repeat the process on the second drawer. This little piece of paper was a little bit too big, so I grabbed the razor blade out and cut it down to size again, applied the glue onto the drawer, and then once that was all applied, stuck down the paper.

Depending on the project and how big it is, you're going to want to try and work from one side to the other with the paper, smoothing it down along as you go. And don't worry too much if you do get little creases or bubbles. You can smooth them out, and they do start to go away a little bit more once it has dried.

To add the final touches to these drawers, I'm using gold paint to do a gold edging all the way around the decoupage paper. I'm also blending it a little bit onto the corner of the paper just so that it adds in really nicely. The dark color will still be visible underneath this gold, and that's why I wanted to put the dark base rather than the red base just to have it as a nice contrast to the red.

Now to do something with the timber on top, I'm going to be applying a stain and glaze here that has a bit of a yellow undertone. That's going to tie in nicely to the gold in the drawers. I paint that on and then use a microfibre cloth to wipe away the excess.

When working with decoupage paper, you do want to apply a top coat over the top to protect it. I'm going to be just applying a spray oil-based topcoat here to these drawers to make it a little bit easier for me.

I let the gold paint dry and the decoupage paper and I'm just coming in here now and doing a quick spray over the entire drawer front just so that it's nice and strong. The paint doesn't need a top coat, but you do need to apply a top coat anywhere you have raw timber.

Here, I'm applying a clear polycrylic top coat to all of the timber on the top of this table. I pour the top coat on and then use a top coat sponge to wipe that all in so that I don't get any smudge marks.

You do need to have this top coat because it's just going to protect the timber from absorbing anything that gets spilled on it and give you a more wipeable surface so that it's really strong and durable.

You do need to apply quite a few coats of the top coat. I went in with four coats of this clear polycrylic on the top of this table.

Now it's time to put it all back together again. As I mentioned earlier, I'm going to be reusing the same hardware, so I'm just going to slide those back into those original holes that were there and then use my pliers just to tighten up the bolts at the back of the handle.

You want to do the same thing with both drawers, so install the hardware back on, make sure to put the washer on the back, and then use the pliers to tighten up that bolt.

Now that it's all finished, I put the drawers back into the table, and it is really starting to come together nicely. So, here it is, the end result. I really wasn't expecting to love this as much as I did because I wasn't 100% sure when I was using the red colour.

But the top of the table with this beautiful timber grain, the colour of the timber stain matches perfectly with the gold fronts, the depth in the decoupage paper, and the way the gold works with the red, it all just turned out to be perfect.

If you love refinishing furniture make sure you join our newsletter down below to get lots of DIY and furniture-flipping inspiration sent directly to your inbox.

Watch the full tutorial here: