Ring around the table

I bought this coffee table at a yard sale for $12. Great deal! It had a neat shape and great carving. It was an ugly brown and had a circle around the top of it that was inlaid with some other type of wood.

I painted the whole thing turquoise but the ring still showed through. I added a couple more coats of paint but it was still there, it just looked like a bad cover up job. So I paid my dear daughter to use a tiny paint brush and paint the ring brown. I then lightly sanded over it but it took off a huge chunk of it! Then I thought I would paint the whole top of the table brown and maybe I would sand the ring and the turquoise would show through. No dice, it looked weird. So I had to putty over the whole ring, sand it down, and start over. Ugh! In the end it turned out really pretty but I put way too much effort into the silly thing. I forgot to take a before picture (I have a hard time remembering to do that) but here is the after.