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.