BEFORE…

DURING…

Even with my new orbital sander, getting this piece down to bare wood to stain the top took me a while…but it was sooo worth it!!

I didn’t want the original color of this piece coming through after it got distressed, so I lightly sanded the whole piece and added stain to all of it.  It wasn’t completely covered or perfect, but it didn’t need to be.  I just wanted to make sure the stain got into the grooves a little and on all of the edges and areas I knew I would be distressing.

AFTER…

So, I usually love the pieces that get painted a real color…like a blue, green or yellow, but I am in LOVE with RUDIMENTARY BEIGE…who knew beige would be so beautiful!!  It does have a glze over it…I used minwax provincial stain (from home depot) mixed with a clear glze (from lowes).  I had a lot of fun distressing this piece…I tried out a new technique in some areas to get more of a “chippy” distressed look.  I learned about this from one of my favorite sites I visit for inspiration and tips (www.sweetpickinsfurniture.com).  I added vaseline to some areas before I painted, then painted as usual.  When I went back to distress those areas rubbed off really good and gave a different look than when you just sand off the paint (which I also did throughout the whole piece).  And the top is a combination of a few stains.  I am no expert when it comes to different types of wood, but whatever this wood is, it soaked up the stain like crazy, so the antique walnut stain was not dark enough for the look I wanted, so after I did a coat of that, I lightly sanded then did a coat of kona…I ended up getting a lot of variations on the top which I LOVE!!  And finally I added a coat of wax to the top just to give it some extra protection.  And we were able to use the orginal hardware.  I loved it so much I really wanted to just move it right into my bedroom, but this piece was SOLD to someone before I even started painting it.  Hope the new owner is enjoying looking at this piece as much as I did for the few days it was in my house!