DIY Craft: Decorate an old End Table

 

It took about 4 hours to give this little table new life.  Some may not like it, but I do, simply because it has a butterfly or two on it and a lacey look.  It did look like this………………….

1.  Just lightly sand the shine off with very fine sand paper.

2.  Next give it a white wash over the top of the dark stain with Apple Barrel White Acrylic Paint by Plaid.

3.  Using paper rush or twisted paper some may call it, decide what areas of the table you’d like to wrap.  I chose the legs.  Using a small nail, find a spot on the back of the leg where the tack won’t show and use it to secure the paper rush.  Then begin wrapping covering up the nail as you go.  No need to measure the strand you are wrapping with, when you come to the end, just secure it with another nail in an inconspicuous spot and begin again til you have the area covered you want.

4.  If you want to paint your paper rush you can do that too.  Once you have completed the wrapping, use water and acrylic paint, whatever color you choose and paint with a brush.

5.  I also used the same color paint and a small tip brush to put little scroll designs and flowers all around the table.

6.  For the top, instead of making it a solid color, I chose to just put a little.  But you can completely cover it, it’s up to you.  I used butterfly stencils and paper lace doilies for my stencils.

The hardest application and the one that also took the longest was the wrapping.  Everything else went quickly.  Acrylic paint dries fast and the finish was almost already gone on this old table so the sanding was a breeze too.

I have another table just like this.  What would you suggest I do to it?  What would you like to see?  Give me some ideas.

The top might need a sealer, I’m going to try it with out one just to see how well the acrylic paint holds up.  It doesn’t scratch off, I tried.  Just can’t understand why people are buying milk paint and other expensive things when the paint we have had around for years does just as well.

Oh and here’s a tip:  If your item is dark and you want it some color besides white, you will probably have to mix your color with white or white wash your piece first for it to show up good.

One more view……………………

                              

Happy Crafting!