DIY: Salvaging a Weather-Beaten Table (Part 2)

I can remember as a small child, going with my dad to Wal-Mart of the local home goods store to purchase paint.  I would watch in amazement as the paint specialist would add BY HAND the right amounts of colored paint to create the color we were going after.  It was SO cool...at least to a 7 year old.  Twenty years later, technology has simplified creating paint colors.  Now, all the sales person does is open the can, place it in the holder, punch in a code in the computer, and the machine spurts out a few colors.  Done.  Not nearly as cool...
Anyway, as I told you yesterday in this post, we chose a colored called Midnight Dream.  Here is what it looks like on the paint chip:

Well, it appears that paint chips LIE!  After one coat, this is what our table looks like:

Do those colors look anything at all similar?!  NO!  I am really really hoping that after another couple of coats, it darkens up.  A LOT! I'm also very bothered by the brush strokes being so visible.  As this is my first time painting furniture, I have no idea if they will blend with additional coats of paint, but I'm also hoping this is the case....  Right now, I'm feeling frustrated.  This table has been a lot of work and I don't want to have to sand and start over again because of this annoying ugly blue.  To make it worse, I can't just paint another coat to see if it gets better!  I have to wait AT LEAST FOUR HOURS before I can recoat it despite the fact that it has been dry to the touch since about 45 minutes after I put the first coat on.  

I'm also waiting on the primer to set before I sand it one final time and put the first coat of this hideous blue paint on them. I put 3 coats of primer on the back and top of the chair and 2 coats on the seat.  I'm debating about doing a third since this area is the highest friction.  The leg spindles only got one coat. Here they are after priming:

On a brighter note, I had to give you something pretty to look at since everything pictured above is so ugly right now.  These are a few of the beauties in our front yard right now.  

Part 3 will be coming soon enough... I'm crossing my fingers for better results!

Blessings!