I have to admit this is the first time I have ever
straight up copied a project from another person…but I liked the idea SO
much and the final outcome of the project was so awesome I just
couldn’t help it! (Well, there are SOME things I did a little
differently. ) I wanted to have a table for the screen porch where we
could eat out there, play games, etc. and I was looking for something
that would seat 6-8 people. After much searching for just the right
table, I found this one on Craigslist. It’s just what I was looking
for…patience is a virtue! It has a leaf that is attached and folds up
underneath the table, so it’s easy to use if we need to accommodate for a
bigger crowd.
The
table was pretty beat up, I mean…well loved by a lot of kids…Parts
gouged out by a pencil, colorful magic marker drawings and the gloss
finish was slowly chipping away. Exactly what I wanted! My dear friend,
Ann, is so sweet and brings me her “Better Homes and Garden” magazines
to flip thru and I just so happened to find a teeny tiny little coupon
on one of the pages for 25% off a stencil from: Cutting Edge Stencils .
It
was so ironic b/c that’s the same website the other girl got her
stencil from. I looked at all the stencils, trying not to copy this girl
to a “T”, but turns out the Paisley stencil was my favorite one too…
it’s just so darn cute! And the stencil is awesome, no bleeds, easy to
clean, I was very pleased!
First
to prep the table I sanded it down and took all the original finish off
the top of it. Then I wiped it down to get the wood dust off.
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| after it's sanded |
And it was
ready to stencil, that easy! I use white latex outdoor paint and a mini
roller-I didn’t use a foam roller because they tend to hold more paint
and I didn’t want it to bleed under the stencil. You don’t have to press
down too hard…just a light pressure and I did 2 coats. I layed the
stencil in the middle of the table to get started and then I went out
from there.
One mistake I made was turning my stencil because I thought
it would look neat not to have a “repetitive pattern” welllllll they are
smart and made the stencil to line up and look never-ending..so don’t
turn your stencil! Just keep painting, just keep painting...
(let it dry, takes about 2 min to dry) and then line it up and paint
the next section. Since I turned my stencil, it obviously wouldn’t line
up so I had to wait for it to dry and then sand the paint off. Not too
big a deal-just a 10 minute detour.
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| if you make this mistake, the paint sands off really easy |
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| ran the stencil down the middle first |
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| almost done... |
Another thing I did was wrap the stencil around the edge of the table…I
didn’t want it to look like there was a defining plain border going all
the way around the sides of the table.
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| done stenciling! |
When
the stenciling was done and the paint was dry, the next step was to
stain it. That’s right, stain over all the hard work you just did! Trust
me, you’ll love it! I used Minwax-All American and it turned out pretty
dark since the wood was sanded down to the raw, so I’m glad I didn’t go
with my Kona stain. Make sure you wear latex gloves-staining can get
messy and have an old rag to wipe the stain off. I did two coats of stain because I wanted it a little darker in some places.
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| my sweet hubby helping me :) |
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| After staining |
I painted the legs and sides of the table a teal color- the same color I used on the China Hutch. I
did two coats, my rule of thumb is two coats of paint on any and every
thing you are going to paint! It always turns out smoother and covers
any spots you may have missed the first go around.
I waited 24 hours for the stain to really dry and then put on a semi-gloss poly-urethane to seal it.
It gave the table a pretty little sheen and it will help protect it some from the elements.
And
here she is, in all her lovely shabby farmhouse glory! Don’t yah love
it!?
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| here's how we wrapped the stencil around the edges/corners |
