Latest ABC Project!

I think I said that I would be done with this project and have it posted by Friday and dang if I didn't do what I said! That's gotta be a first! It seems like forever since I have done an ABC (Anything But Cookies) project...this hot weather is messing with my creativity!

Anyhoo...a reminder of what this coffee table looked like when I brought it home a couple of weeks ago:

 And let's not forget what I paid for it:

The first thing I needed to do was sand the top down to bare wood because I knew that I wanted to re-stain it a dark, rich color (it appears darker in the photo, but it was actually a full-on, light oak). I started out with a palm sander but it was too flippin' hot to mess around, so I had to get out the big dog...otherwise known as a belt sander. Now, these can be tricky...it's kind of like, turn it on and hold on for dear life because they can get away from you. By the time I had worked up a good sweat, I was done...thankfully!

I knew that I wanted to paint the legs, but I also wanted to "shabby" it up a bit so I needed to sand the legs just enough that the darker stain would adhere to most of it. Then when I did sand off the paint, the darker stain would show. It took me a while to decide on the paint color...I considered going "safe" with a creamy white or basic black, but if you remember back to my "teaser" picture, I decided to go bold with a nice shade of turquoise (Valspar "Nautical", if you are interested).

I also wanted to put a little interest on the top of the table, so I ended up purchasing this vintage postmark for a $1 off of  ETSY, at a shop called Graphique.  I know that I probably could have found a free  image on the Internet , but I was feeling extremely lazy and did not feel like searching for a postmark.  I highly recommend checking Graphique out, they have some AWESOME designs!  Anyhoo, I enlarged and then printed the image...using graphite paper and a stylus, I transferred the image onto the wood.

 

Now, I could tell you that I then used a brush and paint to complete this process, but I'd be lying.  I started out doing that, but could quickly see that I was going to be old older and gray grayer for that was done, so I went to "plan B"...a good ol' Sharpie pen.  It was done in about 2 minutes...I wasn't being too careful, because I wanted it to look "worn" and I was going to do a little sanding over it.

 

I then used Minwax English Chestnut to stain over the top.  Once that was completely dry, I did about 6 coats (yep, you could probably dance a jig on this thing) of Minwax Satin Polyurathane over the top, sanding with 220 grit sandpaper in-between each coat.  Added two little wood ornaments from Hobby Lobby and  VOILA!

Whatch'a think?  I wish that I could say that this color matched my living room, but sadly, it does not!  Since my house is slowly being overtaken with refurb furniture, I am probably going to sell it.  It was a super fun (and surprisingly easy) project.  The best part:

Price Breakdown:

Table                            $9.99

Paint                              2.70 (it was one of those small sample jars)

Wood Ornaments           2.00

Image                             1.00

Stain                               0 (already had it)

Poly                                0 (already had it)

Grand Total                 $15.69

Not too shabby...pun intended!

Once again...before:

After:

As always, thanks for stopping by...have a great weekend!

Linking to:


The CSI Project
Perfectly Imperfect
My Repurposed Life
My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia
Under the Table and Dreaming


Miss Mustard Seed
Today's Creative Blog
Primitive and Proper 






There's a skinny girl who lives inside of me that's screaming to get out...I can usually shut her up with cookies!