Frugal Furniture Fun: Magazine Rack

The Challenge:

This week's project was found at a rummage sale.  It is a circa 1970's magazine holder, made in Taiwan.  I bought it for a $1.50.  It is made of some solid wood strips and some plywood with veneer.  The  dark stained veneer was worn in places, and the poly coat was crackling in a not-so-pretty distressed fashion.  The plywood bottom had warped a little, separating from the wood center slat that keeps the magazine to the left and right.  One bottom corner of the end piece had some chipping, with little pieces of the center ply missing.

The Plan:

I wanted to make this something for our living room, which is black and brown and modern. I decided to at least give it a coat of glossy black paint.  I am still deciding on how I want to add some copper accents to the piece, but the black paint is enough to make it work well in the house.

The Work:

The simple design is a bit dated to woodworking hobbyists in the '70's, as the wood finials that screwed onto the ends held the entire thing together.  This made for super easy refinishing, though, as 10 finials unscrewed let all of the pieces separate from each other.  The screws were in great condition, no rust.  I took wood putty and filled in the gap of the center piece at the bottom and the bottom end corner that had chipped.  I sanded the putty down once dry, and lightly sanded the entire piece to give the paint something to adhere to.  As I was using spray paint, I didn't work too hard at the sanding, though should have, as one spot I had to sand again and apply a 2nd and 3rd layer of paint, because it had a waxy residue that repelled the spray paint.  So, I have a little 'paint blob' in that area.  Live and learn.  I should have found toothpicks and properly spray painted the finials while they were suspended, but as I plan to 'dress' them up with some copper accents, I didn't worry too much about the even-coatedness.

The Result:

This is the end result of the high gloss black spray paint treatment.

I'll make sure to post if/once I get the copper accents done up!