Hi everyone. Sorry to have been MIA. Christmas was wonderful, but then came sick kiddos and tax season. So, I haven’t had a chance to blog in a bit. I’ve been poking around blog land checking some of your projects out and drooling… And I’ve done a few of my own.
Since Emerald Green has been named the Pantone color of the year for 2013, I thought I’d start painting a little more green.
Now, this isn’t exactly Emerald. It’s what I’ll call a “grass green”. But Spring is on it’s way, and from the color palettes I’ve seen, all greens are game in this Pantone color of the year phenomenon.
There is quite a story to this little curvy end table. I’ll try to make it short and sweet, but I want to tell you about the troubles and triumphs in case you ever encounter such things when buying thrift store items.
I don’t have a picture of this cute little table before I started working on it. I had a good bit of scuffing and a few knicks on the top and a pretty deep scratch on the top left corner. So I sanded and sanded until I felt I shouldn’t sand anymore. I can’t tell you how I knew when to stop. I just knew. That’s just one of those things you have to do by trial and error. This piece had some type of inlaid design on top, so I wasn’t 100% sure what was underneath. Then I filled any scratches or gaps with wood filler and let it dry.
After the wood filler dried. I lightly sanded that part with 220 sandpaper to make it smooth to the touch. It felt totally smooth. So, I took my homemade “grass green” chalk paint and went to town painting this little beauty.
As it dried, I saw this:
(sorry for the glare- cell phone picture)
Ugghh… the green was so pretty, but the scratch was so obvious! It reminded me of that L- shaped scratch on Mrs. Leefolt’s dining room table in “The Help”. It IS one of my favorite books/movies ever! I even wrote a post about it – remember? Well, I didn’t want to think of Mrs. Leefolt when I looked at my beautiful table!
So, I wracked my brain for a solution. And Tip Junkie came to the rescue. I used this tutorial featured on Tip Junkie to create a crackle finish using Elmer's glue.
I bravely brushed on a coat of watered down Elmer's School glue over my freshly painted grass green table top. It was SCARY!
While the glue was still tacky, I painted another coat of my grass green homemade chalk paint over it. Again, scary.
But after it dried, it was a wonderful thing! It hid Mrs. Leefolt’s scratch and those few knicks perfectly!
I left the table overnight to be sure everything was totally dry. I then sanded just the edges of the table and the base, drawers, and legs as usual. I waxed them with Annie Sloan's clear wax to seal the finish.
It turned out beautiful, and no one had to know about the scratch. Hopefully, they’ll just think I’m uber-creative. Ha!
Sometimes the greatest projects come from a little trial and error!
Linking up at these fabulous parties:
Inspiration Gallery Link Party, Furniture Feature Friday at Miss Mustard Seed,
Flaunt it Friday at Chic on a Shoestring Weekend Bloggy Reading Linkup
