A Dining Table for Two

 

Isn’t she gorgeous!

 

 

 

I just love the look of this table.

 

What started as a natural pine table turned into this soft shiny luxurious table that we’ll use as a dining table in our tiny rental home for 3 months.  Our gigantic dining table will be packed and stored for our new home in Alberta.

 

I started with a dark blue base coat of my own chalk paint mix.

Then I streaked it with Versailles chalk paint.  Wasn’t quite happy yet with the look so . . . I sanded, added more dark blue streaks, more Versailles streaks, more sanding.  THEN . . .

I knew it needed just a little something more, so I cut out a leaf stencil and painted this on ‘sloppily’ in the Versailles color.

 

Then the wax, and I ran out of clear wax so I had to use dark wax. This is what added the deep luxurious tone that absolutely love on this table.

 

That’s the fun part about taking a piece of furniture that isn’t going to break your bank account and just start playing.   Who knows what masterpiece you’ll create.

Graphite & Stain Together Forever

This is my first attempt at a two-toned furniture re-do and I really must say it turned out pretty good. I think a lot of it depends on what color you love to paint and where you leave the natural wood to show.  The combination has to work.

 

Every piece I buy has some story of course.  We sometimes visit the Thrift Store on Saturdays but this particular weekend the furniture area was pretty picked over.  Lonely stood this square table.  I loved the curvature of the legs, the lip on the top, the width that framed the top and the height.  For $12, I really couldn’t go wrong even if  I did nothing with it for years. 
That’s only 2 fancy coffees to give up really. 

BUT, for some reason we walked away.  LATER that week, I called the store because I couldn't get it out of my mind and it bugged me that I didn’t buy it.  It was still there waiting for me!  I even took my lunch hour to go get it leaving only 20 minutes for eating.  No, they are not open after 5:00.

So, in my basement I turned it around several times debated what to do.  I knew I was going to paint it Graphite but it needed a special “wow” factor.

So, here’s what I did.

 

I started to sand parts of it.  The wide border around the top and lip was sanded and prepped for stain – the same stain as our woodwork in the house. 

 

Then I sanded just the corners of the legs.  Later, I would distress the paint to reveal the natural wood and the wax would hi-lite it. 
That’s the beauty of Chalk Paint. 

 I didn’t need to sand the entire table. 

 

Now the paint.  This photo above is without any wax so it looks very dull.

Yes if you noticed I did sand and stain the lip and then painted right over it. 
WHY you ask? 

Because I wanted this affect.  A little distressing to reveal the stain beneath.

I used clear wax first to soak into the paint then dark wax to give a richer tone.  Here you see the corners soaking up the dark wax.

Eventually I think I will get a glass top just because this table is used A LOT .

Have a good week.  I’m getting onto the next project in the basement.

At Ends

 

I’m really going to miss these two beauties.  They ended up being the exact color I’ve been looking at adding to our living room.  I didn’t plan it that way, but now that they are done I’d love to keep them.  When you see the photos you’ll notice, just as I did, that they are too large for our space.

So, they are up for sale.

 

The process was too long for these two projects. 

If you’ve read the previous posts, it was because of

more important life events. 

Originally there was not going to be any distressing. 

Sometimes, I’m just not a fan and want to try NOT doing it. 

Well, these just weren’t looking so great.  Even my husband didn’t say much. 

So I dragged them back downstairs and sanded and added dark wax. 

Then I waited.  The next day I buffed, leaving some of the dark wax on. 

I loved the new look! 

Even the husband said they looked so much better with a little personality. 

Even if you’re not a fan of the distressed look, these have just enough

to work in your hoity-toity living room. 

Don’t you LOVE the vase on the end table? 

That was one of my Christmas gifts from my daughter. 

See, it would look so good together in our room. 

Ya, I tried that too on the hubby, but they are still too large. 

Better off in someone else’s rec room.

Time to stop being blue and get going on another project.

Have a good Sunday.

Cutlery 'treasure' Chest

 

Such a Treasure.

An older cutlery chest turned into

something shabby chic, Id’ say.

This was my mom’s cutlery chest and it originally was a brown,

just brown with varnish.

I used Chalk Paint, not my own this time, with a clear wax

and a touch of dark wax.

I’m not too sure if I like the painted knobs, so they may be changed when I find the right ones.  While I believe the joy and craze with chalk paint is true, that you don’t have to sand or prep anything, and you can paint anything, I should have taken the knobs off and perhaps polished them up instead.

But still, she is beautiful and I just love that I got it done for this Christmas.  It looks great on the hutch from my mom-in-law. 

 ~Till next time.

Little Blue Table

 

 

LOVE this little blue storage table. 

You won’t believe what I paid for it or maybe you would,

depends on what you like. 

I like a challenge so I thought for 1 loonie I could at least paint it.

 

 

AND I did just that.

 

 

FIRST , I painted the edges white.

Wherever I thought I might distress it I painted white.

 

THEN, painted it blue and sanded it down a bit. 

I changed out the doors for these dark plexi-glass ones.  I think that changes the look immensely!

LOTS of sanding and waxing and ta-da! 

 

Have a good weekend!  I hope to go garage saling again. 

The end of garage sales for the season is near.