Distressed Table

Pretty Table Top

I wanted to try my luck at distressing some furniture.  I really like how this turned out, but as usual, it didn't go as I had originally planned.  I wanted to keep it really light and not glaze or antique.  I just wanted to distress the corners and places where normal wear would occur.... I decided I had sanded my dining room so much and maybe it wasn't all that necessary?  I have been following a few blogs and decided to try my luck at with liquid sandpaper.  Turns out to be a pretty good plan!  You just rub it on and rub it off!  You are just trying to get the shiny top coat off.  It really cleans up the wood nice too!.  The table felt a little sticky after several times of wiping on and wiping off.  I think that is what you are after, something for the primer to really stick to.  I primed a couple of coats and then painted the table a tan color.  (I will have to look up the name.)  Then the second coat I painted a soft cream.  I let it dry overnight.  I took a sanding block and sanded down through all the colors.  It looked great.  You could see the colors really blend together. 

After I finished sanding, I really had the look I originally wanted.  Then I decided it needed some detail around the top.  I used some latex based stain and a sponge brush to get in all the little cracks.  Well when I did that, some of the stain started to run...yikes!  So I decided to glaze it with the stain.  I really like the look that the stain added.  Remember, there is no wrong way!  Sometimes you just gotta go with what you got! 

I rubbed the stain on with the sponge brush and then wiped it away with a clean dry cloth.  I finished off with a coat of polycrylic. 

Before and After

Before

After

     

Dining Room

My next project begins!  This is a pic. of the finished product.  Just a teaser.....I have got to get all my pics together.  Stay tuned!

I started out with a solid oak table and six chairs.  Very sturdy but very dated.  I used Jasco to remove any shiny that was still on the furniture.  I did not think it was that much, but it was quite a bit!  Once you start scraping and sanding you will find alot more residue than you thought.  I see lots of post where people don't sand.  It might not have been necessary, but I want to do it right, so I sanded.  For a couple of weeks I sanded! 

We decided to stain the tabletop and the seats of the chairs a dark walnut.  It really gave it a rich look.  Very happy with the results. 

You can see how far we sanded everything down!  Next step... Primer! 

You can see the chairs all primed up in the background!  I let them primer get really good and dry before I started with the color.  THE color turned out just great!  It is valspar paint.  Eggshell.  I thought the glaze would work better later if the paint wasn't so shiny.  The color is Crystal Blue.  It looked really beachy.  Could have left it like this if my house was a little different.  But I wanted them to look old....so.....I glazed them...

Love them!  The table legs turned out so good!  I let the paint completely dry! Hardest part!  Then I took the valspar glazing and painted it on with a sponge brush.  Make sure you get in all the cracks.  I covered everything, and then took a soft cloth, like and old T shirt and wiped it off.  Leave the cracks heavy for a more antique look.  Wipe it cleaner if that is not what you like.  Remember my "test table"?  I high suggest doing one first.  You can figure out what you want the end result to be.....

Test Table

The first project I decided to tackle was my golden oak dining room suite!  Pretty big project for a newbie!  I decided on a beautiful teal color and I decided to glaze it.  (Mainly because I thought it would cover some of my imperfections!)  I found an old worn out end table in my basement.  It had been painted black by my daughter in her college apartment.  There was no primer used, so it was not a really attractive finish..... This photo is after I had very lightly sanded and started to apply primer.  I primed the entire table with a primer that would pretty much cover up anything! 

This is a pic of the completely primed table.... I picked out a beautiful emerald blue.  It turned out really beachy and pretty, I was tempted to leave it alone.... but I decided to move on.  Remember this is my test table so I was willing to try pretty much anything. 
I forgot to take a pic of the table before I glazed.... So here is the final product.... My old ugly sticky table..
transformed.....

 I will try to get the whole dining room on soon!  (along with all the details and  products used.)