Who doesn’t appreciate a great transformation. Today I want to share with you a project I did that completely transformed a thrift store find. I LOVE a good bargain, so when I came across this coffee table, I was excited. It was solid, had good structure and design elements and I knew with a little TLC it could really become a beautiful piece.

This is really an easy project if you have a little time and are willing to try it! I will share what I did for this table and you will see just how easy it can be!

Supplies:
1. Minwax Dark Walnut stain
2. White chalk paint (Pure White Annie Sloan)
3. Duck Egg chalk paint (Duck Egg Annie Sloan)
4. Light gray chalk paint
5. Clear wax
6. Polycrylic (satin finish)

Tools:
1. Nice paint brush (I recommend Purdy brushes)
2. Rags (old t-shirt)
3. Candle
4. Putty knife
5. Belt sander/electric sander or regular hand sander with sandpaper

Here is a BEFORE photo showing what I started with.

Steps

1. Sand top. I took a belt sander and sanded down just the top of the table. I knew I wanted to stain the top so I needed to get down to bare wood. Use a low grit sandpaper. The lower the number the rougher the paper. I used a 60 or 80 grit. You can then smooth anything out with a higher grit, but don’t spend too much time here, it does not need to be perfect.

2. Stain top.  I used my favorite Minwax Dark Walnut Stain. I always apply my stain with an old t-shirt, because when I finish I can just throw away the rag and not have to clean a brush with paint thinner. You can watch my staining video on my How to Page

3. Paint. After the stain is dry you can start painting! I painted the table apron (wood pieces between the legs) white. I was not too careful about getting every part covered since I was going for a distressed look.

As for the top, I wanted a chippy vintage look. To do this I use a candle, any kind should work, but I had a tea light candle on hand. You are going to rub the candle in random spots anywhere, you want stain to show through. The wax is going to act as a barrier to the paint. After I rubbed the candle over sections of the top, I lightly painted white over the wax. When the paint is mostly dry, take a putty knife and scrap the paint off. I repeated the same process with my Duck egg paint in sections on the top.

I don’t really have a certain method for where I paint or don’t or how much. I just go by eye and see what looks good. I then decided to add a little gray in as well in a couple small patches. I “dry brushed” some of the gray over the white paint as well as the duck egg. Dry brushing is basically where you barely dab your brush in paint and then dab most of it off before lightly brushing it on your surface. ( I like to dip my brush in the paint and then I use a paper plate and dab my brush, getting most of the paint off, before lightly brushing it on the furniture)

I painted the legs duck egg.

Look how lovely that turned out!

5. Wax and poly! I chose to use a clear finishing wax (I used clear Briwax) on the bottom of the table. Its easy to apply with a rag, especially on rounded parts like the legs. Less is more! You do not need very much wax at all. Use as little as possible. This is stinky stuff so make sure you have a window open!

I used Minwax polycrylic, in a satin finish for the top. I prefer polycrylic over polyurethane, because you can use soap and water for clean up, instead of paint thinner. I use this instead of wax on surfaces that I know will get a lot of wear and tear and potentially water on it. I have small kiddos, so my coffee tables have lots of stuff spilled on them and I need to be able to easily clean them up without damaging the paint. I recommend 3 coats of poly using a NICE paint brush. I will always recommend Purdy brushes. You will be amazed how much of a difference a high quality paint brush will make in the quality of your finish.

And that’s it! Beautiful!

I hope to share a “how to video” on the chippy paint technique in the near future.

Emily