French Label Table

Wendy and I picked up this neat little table at a used furniture store. It was in pretty bad condition, but had a great shape to it....Why is it that you always remember to take the before picture AFTER you've worked on something?!

I painted the table a creamy white...

 
 

I wanted to add something special to this table so I found a vintage chocolate label from the graphics fairy. I enlarged the image in Word and then printed it out. I traced over the opposite side of the image using a pencil. Then I taped the image right side up to the table and scribbled over the image with the pencil. This transfered the pencil tracing to the table top.

 

I then used a small paint brush and black paint to fill in the transfered image. That left me with this result. Very cute!

I added a french-looking stencil to the bottom shelf then distressed the whole table using 100-grit sandpaper.

Finally, I stained the table using Minwax dark walnut stain. I always recommend stain because it enhances the distressing and ages a piece perfectly. It looks just like it came right out of a french store!

P.S. Check out this post and this post for some more fun tables!

Designer Garden Party

Armoire Before and After

Wendy and I picked up this armoire at a recent auction...It was pretty beat up but had AWESOME lines and great detail (the things we most look for in furniture). You always have to see past the cosmetics of pieces and envision what they can become.

I first painted the piece of soft creamy white. I chose to leave the hardware attached so it would blend into the piece and not detract from the great details.

I then sanded the edges with a hand sander to add that vintage distressed look. After distressing I hand rubbed the whole piece with dark walnut stain.  Note: When using stain as your glaze/antiquing agent, allow ample dry time. Using stain gives a great look, but does take a while to dry!

Happy Painting Everyone!