Chica recently challenged me to give a modern, new look to two mid-century modern end tables that she had been storing for ages. After she gave them to me to redo, they sat in my garage for a long time before I finally decide how I would breathe new life into these vintage tables.

I love the two-tier design of these end tables and wanted to do something subtle but also add some retro style.

To freshen them up, I started with a couple of coats of Rust-Oleum high gloss white spray paint.

Even after only one coat of white, they looked so much better!

The legs also need a little freshening up so I gave them a spritz of Rust-oleum 2X Ultra Cover in high gloss black.

There was a small accent piece of metal at the end of each leg, so I used some Americana Decor Metallics paint in a rich gold color to make that detail pop.

Now here is where it gets interesting! For a fun punch of color, I wanted to add some retro-colored lines to each riser side. At first, I was going to paint the stripes by hand, but then I saw tubes of colorful washi tape and decided to use that instead to make my lines.

After choosing my colors, I applied my pattern of diagonal lines with a small amount of white space between each color. I let the tape go beyond the edges of the panel, so I could easily trim them all later.

When I was satisfied with the layout, I used a sharp craft knife and metal ruler to trim the excess tape off in a straight line.

To seal the washi tape and make sure it doesn't peel away over time, I applied a coat of decoupage. I used DecoArt's Americana Decou-Page in a gloss finish to match the finish of my paint.

Look at how crisp those lines look! They are so straight and perfect... way better than I would have been able to achieve by hand-painting.

After Chica saw these end tables, she wanted them back, but that's too bad... I think they look pretty great in my rec room!