Playing around with gray

After I finished the dining room table on Saturday, I sat my bootie down on the couch to scroll through Pinterest, drink some champagne and watch Walk the Line. Buttttt that only lasted about 20 minutes. I have so many unfinished projects in my garage, so I decided to tackle another one. 

The last time my mom visited she picked up a curvy little coffee table for $20 at Goodwill. I've found a few tables like this now; I love them because no matter how you paint them the leggy shape always helps maintain a level of sophistication. 

This funky gold-dipped one is in our living room now: 

And this one I sold to my sweet friend Caitlyn for her new apartment:

I also have one at the foot of my bed, that I REALLY wanna try and tuft. I'm thinking something like this: 

See it on Pinterest

I already bought the peg board and I have the fabric... but let's see when I actually get to that. :/

Anyyywhooo... here's what the most recent coffee table project looked like when my mom found it: 

$20? Holla!

My favorite blog is Dear Lille- she uses lots of whites, grays and natural wood palettes so I decided to play around with a gray color. I chose a Behr color called "Silver Bullet". My preference for Coors Light may or may not have led me to choose that color... ok, it did. 

I sanded the table, and then cleaned it with TSP before applying two coats of the paint + primer. Then I lightly distressed it with low grit sandpaper and steel wool. 

Even with the distressing, it didn't looke quite "aged enough". The gray paint was still too stark in contrast with the wood. So, I used Annie Sloan dark wax on it to darken it a little. 

I don't have a fancy wax brush, so I usually just cut up an old t-shirt to use as lint free rags. Sorry, Pat...

Working with wax is a little more complicated than working with glaze, just because you have less time for color correction. I apply a generous amount of wax in a circular motion using a strip of my t shirt, but I work in very small sections and only leave it on for roughly 30 seconds. 

This is what it should look like before you wipe it off: 

Looks kinda gross, I know. But your fingers will end up looking even more gross. 

Told ya!

After the wax has set for 30 seconds, wipe it off with a clean strip of your t shirt (or cheesecloth) in a linear direction. If you leave it on a light color paint longer than 30 seconds, it can make your piece just look dingy and dirty rather than aged. There's more wiggle room with darker colors, though. 

After the wax was applied to the whole table, it came out like this: 

I think the gray makes it look a little beachy. But it could be that I'm just ready for summer :)

Until next time, God Bless!