Updates and snags!

by mlabks

I finished all the Bushel Basket Flower Pockets for the fence that our neighbors put up. As promised, here are the before and after pictures of them hanging on the fence.

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Before…

After! Now I love looking out my kitchen window and seeing my lanterns, flowers and rock wall!

The $5 table I posted about last week hit a couple snags. I don’t mind a little distress and a couple of dings here and there. They can give a piece more character (kind of a look at me, I have been through a lot, and am still here attitude)! But, in this case the issues took away from the beauty. If you look at the picture below, you will see a crack running down the middle of the table and some deep holes. I was hoping the stain would make them less noticeable, but it didn’t do the job.  I had to fill the crack and holes with wood putty and then I painted the top with a wash mixture of Annie Sloan Graphite Chalk Paint and water. The rest of the table remained the natural wood.

Staining it did not hide the cracks and holes like I thought it would so painting was the next step.

The wonders of chalk paint, just beautiful!

The other issue was the legs or actually the feet. Some of the wood on two of the feet had broken off at some point and all four were not the same shape. You can see in the picture below that while the table was stable, the feet were noticeably different.

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There are two pointy feet and two round. In most cases, I really try to stay away from adjusting table legs. It can be difficult to level off and the table will be wonky! But in this case there was no choice.
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Against my better judgement an inch and three quarters was removed from each leg (I had help because I haven’t yet gotten around to mastering a chop saw).
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After the legs were cut, I reattached them realizing that I lost needed height for the table. I had recently removed four antique wheels from a dresser and decided to put them on the legs to get the height back. They were easy to attach. Just drill a hole and gently hammer them in.
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After the feet were fixed and the top painted I felt it still needed something more. So, I decided to add a diagonal stripe to the top using Annie Sloan Black Wax. I taped off the table with painters tape, starting in the middle, and continued the pattern working out from the center to get an even design.
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I applied the black wax using a brush and then wiped off any excess with a clean and dry cloth.
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I removed the tape carefully not to disturb the paint underneath and Voila! It looked even better than I thought it would. One thing to note, it will take about two weeks for the wax to cure before I can put on the final touch of a matte clear topcoat sealer from Artisan Enhancements.
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I added handles to add more character. I chose an antique pewter handle to pick up on the grey in the table top.
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IMG_3710 This was one for the books! I really had to fight hard to save this table.  In the end, it was well worth the effort!

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