My Gray French End Table

So, my mother in law picked me up this beauty at Goodwill. I was thrilled, because the hardware matched another set of end tables which was missing their hardware. So as you see, I took it off immediately. This table was in good shape, but UGLY.

Ooooh, lovely wood laminate:)

So, I had heard people were making their own chalk paint, and since I am working on a super small (AKA non existent :p) budget, I decided to use the recipe (using 1/2 cup plaster paris and 1/2 cup water mix, then 1 1/2 cup of paint mix.) I had some True Value feathered gray we had used to paint my oldest  son's bedroom. So I mixed it up and it went on really nicely. I used two full coats.

Top coated very nicely!

Leg detail

I got this great idea inspired by Karin over at Art is Beauty, she made this awesome french-y table using the freezer paper transfer method. Click here for that blog/project.

So I went to The Graphics Fairy and found a cute french label. I really don't know what it said, but it looked cool:) So, I followed the instructions on how to do the freezer paper transfer and I had some trial and error with getting the image not to smudge, and remember, rub your image A LOT so that you get enough ink on your project. I tried telling myself, I'll get it right the first time, but I didn't. And I tried to wipe the image away with a wet cloth, yet I still saw some image remaining. Here is where I grabbed this: 

Goo Gone

Have you ever used Goo Gone? Well it's great stuff! It takes gooey stuff off of almost anything.  Like sticker stuff off of your wall, glue off hands, just tons of uses. It was right there on the counter and I sprayed my unfinished paint job. Wow, Jessi: bad idea. As I wiped, off came that image remnant . . and paint. Oh crap. So, what I had to do was remove all the paint that was on the inside part of the table. (As you might notice, there was an indent around the perimeter of the table.) I was pretty disappointed in myself. Duh! I forgot to take a picture of the mess. (You didn't want to see that anyway, right?)

So I got thinking, ya know, I think it looks pretty boring all one color. What if I pour a little black in the gray paint and make the inside of the table darker? Yes. So that is what I did, and when I finished the top, I thought, maybe I should put some of that darker in the details on other parts of the table. 

Darker Gray in the details!

 Then I brought out some contact paper I for the drawer that I had been saving to use. By the way, I learned how to line drawers with contact paper from my friends at Blue Trim Interiors on their Facebook page.

Pretty Drawer Liner!

Then I got to distressing with several different sanding sponges.

 

I thought it was looking pretty good. I used Minwax Paste Wax to finish it off. Then I took some pictures and really didn't like the way the inside of the drawer looked, it looked..off. So I decided to take it out and paint it the darker gray. I really don't recommend doing this at this particular time during the process. Blue tape on contact paper is tricky, but obviously this was an afterthought. Also, by this time I had found a drawer pull I liked that did NOT match the current holes, so I filled that in at the same time. (Also something you should figure out BEFORE you paint. Oh well:))

 Well here she is, I really like the way she turned out. What a great new life! $50 for anyone interested. She is done and ready to go home with you. You'll miss her when you're gone :)

Hello! Flat black drawer pull.

Simple design on top:) I don't know what it says,
but I did find the word canvas on there
and I think there is a name, and a street name;)

Wax really brightens and brings out distressing

Thanks for reading! Come visit again:)