Painting a Laminate Dining Table Emerald and Gold

I’m back at you with a post about how I actually finished the table that you saw me prep and prime earlier. Now that the tedious prep work is done, I can now move on to the fun part – picking the perfect paint and patterns! This is where we left off with the table:

As you saw in my planning of the sun room, I had picked a palette that included emerald green (Pantone’s pick as color of the year and all-around just one of my favorite colors).

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I knew this was the bold, beautiful color that I wanted to paint the table. Then, inspired by my gilded chair legs, I decided that an emerald and gold would be the perfect combination.

I had originally thought that I was going to use the Rub ‘n Buff for the gold inlay on the table but after I realized I wanted more gold on the table than just the legs, I needed something that would go a little farther. I also wanted a paint that was a little more durable for an outdoor dining table. I went with Rust-oleum’s gold metallic spray paint.

I then hauled the table out to the deck (in a mad dash between thunderstorms) and sprayed it gold in the areas I knew I wanted to have a gold pattern.

Then, just to reinforce the gold (since I knew I was going to be taping over it) I put a coat of Valspar’s clean protective coating (in spray paint form). I crossed my fingers this would keep the paint on the table and not pull up with the paint later on.

After letting that dry overnight I taped out a pattern on the table.

I wanted to have a little pop of fun on the top and then have gold sections on the legs.

After I taped that out I realized (after some major encouraging from Eric) that I needed to do it right, so the table got hauled onto the porch again and another coat of gold spray paint was put on over the taped lines. This is key to achieving straight lines when pulling up the tape. I’m so glad I took the extra time to do this step. It made all the difference.

An hour or so later I then did two coats of the Emerald Green, letting the recommended 4 hour dry time between coats.

Then came the moment of truth when I started pulling up the tape, scared to see drips and smearing under the tape. But no! Doing it right works! My lines were perfect and straight, except for where the latex pulled up a little. That’s not that big a deal as you can usually just press it down back into place.

I giggled. I danced. I did my happy dance. I absolutely love this table! It’s everything I wanted it to be and more!

The last step was putting two coats of polyurethane on it (I used Minwax in Satin). This is actually where I ran into a little of trouble. The spray painted area reacted a little differently than the latex and it actually “melted” under it, causing it to run. So I steered clear of that and just put it on the green. I’m still contemplating getting a spray can of poly to see if that would work for both types of paint. Even without that I’m pleased with the finish.

Look at how amazing it looks all together with the chairs. I’m over the moon with happiness on how the sun room is all coming together! This may be one of my favorite projects I have ever done (do I say that every time?!). What about you? What have you been painting recently?

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