Decoupaging Furniture – Grandma’s Table

This is my sister, Colleen.

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She is the greatest sister a girl could ever ask for, a wonderful mother to her three babies and my best friend in the entire world. She is also incredibly challenging when it comes to finding the perfect birthday present for her.

This is our grandmother’s table.

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It was a beauty in it’s day, but somehow ended up in my basement a little banged up and very dusty.

These are my sister’s babies.

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(Did I say she only has three? Technically, the big boy on the end belongs to me. However, he thinks he is one of Colleen’s babies because he has so much fun playing at her house and she loves him like one of her own. She’s an awesome aunt too!)

These are two of my favorite American Paint Company colors—Lincoln’s Hat and Beach Glass—along with my favorite APC product, Silver Mica.

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I love using APC products because they are all-natural, easy to use and make every piece I paint look like a beautiful work of art.

I started by giving Grandma’s table a good scrubbing. Then I applied a thick base coat of Beach Glass all over, including inside the drawer. Next, I painted a thinner coat of Lincoln’s Hat. I started wet-distressing the table using a damp washcloth. Some areas looked really pretty with the turquoise Beach Glass swirling through the black Lincoln’s Hat, but some areas zapped the paint all the way down to the bare wood.

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Normally I like this rugged, distressed look, but my sister’s décor is modern and sleek.

One of the reasons why this present is so special is because she doesn’t have any of our grandmother’s furniture. Grandma’s traditional style never really matched Colleen’s contemporary home. 

Again, I turned to the American Paint Company community on Facebook.

I got lots of great advice on how to refine my wet distressing technique.

Some people also suggested applying wax after the first coat of paint.

The wax protects the first coat from rubbing all the way down to the bare wood when you start distressing the second coat of paint. 

Colleen’s birthday was only a few days away. In the end, I decided to go for a sleeker look and skipped the distressing altogether. I repainted Lincoln’s Hat over the areas I had distressed and I painted the table legs a fresh coat of Beach Glass to match Colleen’s turquoise and black living room.

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Our dad took a great photograph of the children on Father’s Day. (Do you know how hard it is to get four children under the age of 4 to all sit still AND look at the camera at the same time?!) I had the photo enlarged.  Then I cut around their little heads and applied the photo to the tabletop with Mod Podge per Chris’s instructions.

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After the Mod Podge dried, I brushed three coats of APC Top Coat over the entire table to protect it from grubby little fingerprints and give it a nice shine. I added a pinch of Silver Mica to the Top Coat before brushing it onto the legs to give them a some sparkle.

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I absolutely love how this table turned out. My sister loved it too. And my mom loved it so much, now she wants one for her birthday too!

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Thank you, American Paint Company, for this great idea!

Post courtesy of Courtney

Comments

  1. So awesome!!!!

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