Welcome back my friend!
My name is Kathryn and along with 101 other hobbies I like to spend my free time restoring, painting, and refinishing old furniture. Today, I am taking this cheap veneer-top table and giving it an all-white rustic farmhouse makeover.
Let's get right into it!
Cleaning
This table has seen much better days. Two of the four legs have been scratched at with some kitty cat claws, and there has also been an attempted repair with some sticky wood putty. This stuff is so tacky it may as well be chewing gum!
Like all of my pieces, I am giving this a very thorough cleaning with hot water and Fusion TSP Alternative. I am also taking a coarse steel brush and wiping off as much of this wood filler as I can. When using TSP, make sure you take the time to come back with some hot water to wipe off any remaining product.
Look how much dirt that's removed, gross!
Painting
The finish we are going for today is a very simple and timeless white look. This is a great go-to finish or a good place to start if you are into rustic styles.
I start by applying a coat of Gesso White chalk paint by Jolie. You can use any color, but I would recommend chalk paint for this finish because it's thick and you can achieve a lot of texture with it. I am giving the table and legs two coats, spaced two hours apart to dry.
For the top, I'm using Zibra's 2" Palm Pro Brush which is comfortable, great quality and, more importantly, it's rectangular which helps me get smooth, straight strokes over a large flat surface area. For the legs, I am using Zibra's Round Brush, which is made for curved surfaces like these table legs or stair spindles, for example. It helps get paint into all of the crevices and provides an even application on both the high and the low points of these legs.
On the top of this table, I am keeping all my brushstrokes in one line and trying to get almost a fake wood grain going with the raised texture the paint provides. You can see that my grain is going to go in the opposite direction of the grain of the veneer beneath. I chose to do this because lines accentuate distance and length. I wanted this table to appear longer than it was, so I ran my lines in the direction that I wanted the eyes to look, in this case lengthwise.
Line is one of the seven Elements of Design. It's the reason why curtains make a room feel taller, for example. If you are interested in stepping up your art game, I highly recommend studying the Elements and Principles of Design. They are a bit abstract and can take time to wrap your head around, but they do help you understand what looks good and why when it comes to design. But that's a topic for another day!
Glazing
Glazing is my go-to for toning down chalk paint, adding more aged character, and bringing out texture.
What we're going to do is take a good old wood stain, apply it all over the paint, and then wipe it back before it dries. This lets the stain soak in slightly to the top layer of the paint and especially sink into any crevices or depressions just like dirt would over time.
It's important to work in sections because you don't want the stain to dry before you're able to wipe it back. Working in sections can sometimes make it hard to match from section to section but rest assured you can always add a bit more stain over any areas you feel are too light or not properly blended. This essentially re-wets the product underneath so you can wipe it back once more.
I'm going to repeat the process on the legs because I want my whole table to match. If you're up for it you could get playful with some color and try a different stain on different areas.
I want to take some time to make a quick note about branching out and fear of failure. I totally know the feeling of spreading out a new color and absolutely hating it or not wanting to mess up something that looks good with a technique that you've never tried.
But I want you to reevaluate the story that you're telling yourself when you hold onto your work so preciously. It stifles creativity and chance and it replaces it with the possibility of fear. There will always be other projects and canvases so just remind yourself that especially with painting where covering up a mistake is really as easy as adding a fresh coat of paint.
Get out there and try new things. You never know what's waiting just around the corner!
Distressing
Alright, now our table is looking good and we are on to the last few steps.
The first thing I'm going to do is grab my sanding sponge and distress the top of this table. What I love so much about glazing is that when you sand off just the slightest edge once the stain has dried, you expose some of the fresh paint underneath and really bring out the faux grain.
We used chalk paint to create nice thick strokes in the lengthwise direction, then our stain soaked into the cavities and depressions, and now we're standing off those high spots to get a pop of white in contrast to the dark gray right next to it.
I'm also going to take some time to do some regular distressing around this table. I do want this to look fairly shabby, I'm going to go all around the edges of the table as well as quite a bit on the legs. You're looking to make some indentations and get back down to wood on any places that would be naturally worn.
Distressing is totally a preference thing...it's up to you how far you go! And again, this might seem a little daunting at first. If you're concerned about going overboard, just start with a tiny bit, stand back, take a look and see where to go from there.
Sealing
I am going to be using Triple-Thick Water-based Polyurethane on the top of this table. This is a dining table it will be getting a fair amount of use, so I want to make sure it's properly protected.
This stuff is fairly easy to work with. Water-based formula means it will not yellow over time as compared to an oil-based formula. It's also a lot easier to clean up.
I am using a disposable chip brush and going in the same direction as my grain. I'm going in small sections and making sure it's all smoothed out. You want to make sure if you are using one of these cheaper chip brushes that you're not leaving any bristles behind. I also don't want to work at it too much before it gets tacky.
For the legs, I'm going to make sure all of the dust is wiped away, grab my wax brush, and apply Jolie's Clear Finishing Wax. This is my normal preference: poly on top and wax on the bottom. The poly is smelly and sticky and I don't really like using a lot of it, whereas wax on the legs is a lot easier to refinish if ever somebody would want to do that and it's just a nicer softer to the touch feel as well.
A wax brush is normally dense with natural fibers and it really helps spread it on. You can also use a cloth to put wax on or any rag like a t-shirt or a shop towel. Wax goes on matte, but if you want a shinier finish, you can wipe it back and buff it into a sheen.
Wax normally takes quite a bit to cure, at least a couple days if not longer. If you're using wax on top of a surface that items might be placed I would recommend setting it aside to cure for a week or more before you put it in its final destination.
The Reveal
Another one done! What do you think?
Easy, classic, timeless. You can really never go wrong with white.
I love the texture coming through the top, as well as the distressing around the edges. This looks like a table pulled out of an old French villa kitchen.
Thanks for sticking around and I'll catch you on the flip side!