From Ho Hum to Handsome…

I don’t know about you, but when we were first starting out in our first apartment, we had to collect furniture from anywhere we could – mostly hand-me-downs from other family or friends. The same goes for my kids. As my two older boys have gotten engaged in the past year, they have begun to make their own homes. My son Chris, who spent 4 years away in the Marines, moved back to Indiana. (Yay!, Yay! and Yay!) He lived here at home for awhile and then moved into his own apartment. He recently got engaged and he and his sweetheart are setting up their own apartment. Since budgets are tight, (new homes and weddings are expensive!)they’ve relied on second hand furniture and are working to make their place as homey as can be. We’ve found a few good pieces for them and I have taken some paint to them. Today’s post is about a small piece that was super easy but I think adds impact.

So this is what I started with – it’s a nice little end table. It’s all wood. Simple. Safe. Kind of goes with anything type of table. But, a little ho hum. What they wanted was something with a little more punch. So they selected a darker color – Graphite – by Annie Sloan.  Graphite is a great color – not a black, more of a dark gray color. Sometimes you look at it and it looks black, depending on the lighting. But it definitely has more gray in it. So if you are looking for a black to paint something – this is not your color.

ASCP Graphite

I started with a fairly heavy coat for the first coat. I went over it with a lighter second coat. I then used clear wax over the whole piece. After it dried overnight I used some fine grit sandpaper and just roughed up the edges a bit. Not a heavy amount of distressing, but enough to show some of the wood through. For some reason, on the top of the piece I had a bit of a problem. I’m not sure what caused it but it looked like there were little pieces of lint dried onto the paint. I noticed it happening while painting, but it was only on the top. So I ended up sanding the top down a bit to get rid of that and smooth it out. I went over it with a light coat of paint and another coat of wax. I let it dry and then buffed the entire piece. The finishing touch was a new little knob. I went with an antique brass to go with the brown from the wood showing through. And here is the finished product:

                                          

                                                

I think this piece went from something that looks like dorm room furniture, to a piece that makes a statement in their apartment. I really like how the wood underneath is showing through. This just shows how a simple coat of paint can transform a piece of furniture from Ho Hum to Handsome!