DIY - small end table

My room still felt empty and I wanted a few more shelves.  I really was thinking of getting a small bookcase, but when I was in GoodWill they had this small sturdy end table for $10 and it was a 50% off day...so for $5, I couldn't pass it up, even if it did have a heart border on it.

This piece was wood, so I sanded it down, scrapped off some gunk and tried to figure out how I was going to remove the piece with the heart.  First I got a small saw and thought if I could get between the crease, I could saw my way through, thinking it was going to be one of those wooden oval things to keep in place.  I had a hard time getting the saw through the smiggen of a crack, so that wasn't going to work.  Upon further inspection, it looked like staples.  I took out the hammer and started to hammer it to see if it would move.  It did but I needed to be careful because I didn't want to crack it.   Between lightly hammering and pulling, the border piece started to pull away, but I did crack the side a little bit.  I pulled the piece out and was only able to get one staple out, so I just hammered the others down, not a big deal since this is for me and not a kid and it is temporary furniture.  Then I started painting; about 4 - 5 layers of paint (maybe I put too thin of paint layers).

While I had the urethane, I elected not to put it on at this time.  If I have other projects I will then finish this one, but it came down to how messy it was to clean up the last time and me not being prepared; I don't have paint thinner or a crappy paint brush to throw away at the end.

So, I think that will be it for my room right now, unless I come across another great piece that has potential.  While my pieces aren't great...what I like is they all match so it gives it a sense of looking more put together than college poor random stuff.