A basic looking yard-sale shelf is transformed into a rustic piece of furniture perfect for your farmhouse decor.
CREATE | Published June 8, 2015
This started out as one of the nicest used pieces of furniture that I've ever worked on. There really wasn't anything wrong with it. Typically my projects involve transforming pretty trashy, broken down things and making them into something nice again. But it still was not a quality made, pricey antique, so I didn't feel bad about painting it.
It was my other furniture find from when I bought the side table I showed you a few weeks ago. I showed you a before in a previous post. In case you didn't see it, here is what it looked like when I started.....
And here it is now....
Originally, I thought I'd paint this entire table dark gray. But after I started sanding the finish to rough up the surface, I saw that the wood was actually pretty with the dark stain was removed. So, much like my candlesticks a few weeks ago, I opted for sanding rather than painting.
I'm not an idiot, though, and knew sanding the spindles would be way more work than I was willing to do. Those got to be covered in a the gray paint.
The wood got one coat of polyurethane, and then everything was rubbed with Miss Mustard Seed's antiquing wax (affiliate link). This was the first time I've tried using antiquing wax on bare wood and I love how it turned out. It did a lovely job of falling into the crevices of the wood, making it look older and aged.
After standing off the original finish, the bare wood was pretty light and I wasn't sure how well this would all work out. But the one coat of poly really brought out the richness to the wood.
I always love the look of distressed paint with bare or stained wood. There are times when something looks best completely painted and times when it is necessary due to the condition of a piece. But whenever it is possible, I find myself digging out my sander and getting down to the beautiful original wood. (And the longer I sand, I remember just how much I really hate that task!)
Now that this is finished, it really has an industrial farmhouse feel to it. The paint color seems industrial and the distressing reminds me of a country farmhouse. The bare wood fits into either style. I seem drawn to that sort of look lately.
I staged the table with two of my favorites....boxwood and ironstone. For some reason, I just can't get enough of these two things! And I added to my collection over the weekend at a couple yard sales. One was an actual English ironstone bowl for a $1. Who could turn that down?
So that is my newest project that has been completed......so many more to start! I seem to be buying more than I'm finishing, but that is always how it is in my world. And some things just take awhile before they are able to tell me how they want to be made pretty!
What are you working on right now?
