Brightening up a tired side table

She's stable, she's solid, she does the job, often for generations. She is the work horse of tables. She is the family room side table. She's held your drinks at arms-length, been a perch for your fleet of remotes, not to mention your stinky feet. Well now it's her turn for some pampering!

This makeover with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint has brought this aging table new life.

Project details: Two coats of ASCP in Country Grey, protected with ASCP Clear Wax, lightly distressed, and accented with ASCP Dark Wax.

Before. This is a great solid table with interesting details and shapely legs. Love that it has a bottom shelf.

After. Isn't she bright and fresh?

Comments

Owl Silhouette Project

The animal of the moment for Au is the owl. This summer she has devoured Kathryn Lasky's fiction series The Guardians of Ga'hoole . Au selected the species for the project based on their characteristic sizes and profiles. I created silhouettes in Adobe Illustrator based on the photographs Au found at owlpages.com . Next we will print and frame them for her room.

Silhouettes

I've played around with creating custom silhouettes digitally using Adobe Illustrator. I start with a digital photo, creating an outline using the pen tool. I love the way they look! Of course they pale in comparison to the artwork that silhouette artists create with paper and scissors, which is what I have on my mantle, but this is a fun project that I have enjoyed exploring and doing for friends.

Navy Bed

Painting in blue is something that I haven't done much of, so when a client was interested in painting her son's vintage white bed in navy blue, it was really a great opportunity. Annie Sloan's Napoleonic Blue wasn't quite dark enough for the room decor, so we chose to finish the piece with a generous helping of Annie Sloan's Dark Wax. I preceded this step with a layer of Clear Wax (and let it dry overnight) because I always want to have max manipulation when it comes to the dark wax application. This pictures shows the difference between clear and dark waxes. The paint, followed by the dark wax to achieve navy blue, also created depth and movement in the painted surface. A single navy blue paint color wouldn't bring that style!

alison mcdonald home

Search This Blog