Distressed Coffee Table

I'm not sure if the Coffee Table or I was more distressed by the end of this ridiculous project.

  I started this table about 2 months ago and had a "fabulous idea" (ha!) about how to refinish it.  I thought I'd paint 3 different layers of different colors over the entire table, then (Here's where I get really smart) throw sand on top of each wet paint layer, so when I use my electric sander on the table it would pull up the sand particles and expose all the different colors. 

My first problem was that my last layer of paint was dark and for some reason REALLY thick. My sander was overheating and melting the paint into a big sticky mess! My head told me to Donate this hideous trash but my heart told me to figure something else out. This table was in my house all growing so there was some guilt associated with getting rid of it. 

I finally resorted to a paint remover.  After a couple hours of scraping and then sanding, but still leaving a little paint, it finally looked like this:

Hey, Not too bad, I actually kind of liked it.  The wood was just a little too "raw" for my taste. 

 So I added a stain by mixing 3 parts Floetrol to 1 part dark brown paint

 I brushed it on in small sections and used an old rag to wipe it off (always in the same direction)

then let it dry

I brushed on a satin polyurethane coating to the entire table for protection.  

The finished product was better then I expected, but looking back I would only have done the polyurethane and left out the stain.  The table is a little darker than I had wanted.  

 I then put it in my bedroom and felt a little spark of satisfaction, followed by Juliette falling backward and bashing her head on it.  

I'm starting to think this thing is cursed.

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