Farm Table Makeover with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint

A few years ago, I found this farm table at an antique store in Georgia. Petite and primitive, the little table was the perfect size for the small dining room in our 1890s rowhouse. With a rough plank top, the table boasted legs and apron in a pale minty green. No doubt it was originally built as a work table for someone's kitchen or shop. I highly doubt it was intended to be used as a dining table, but hey who cares. Styles change, right?
For two years, the table stayed its original mint-green color. It worked with our original eclectic decor. But as our styles evolved, I grew bored with the green color. Especially once no one else in our house was green anymore.  So, I did what I always do when I'm ready for a change: I whipped out my paint brushes.
To coordinate with our kitchen color and with the upcoming living room makeover, I chose the color Paris Grey by Annie Sloan Chalk Paint. It's a soft pale grey, the same color actually as our recent dresser makeover. I decided to paint just the legs and apron, leaving the surface rough and unadorned. 

The whole project took about 20 minutes-- and I love the finished look! I only needed one coat of paint and chose to not wax. I felt that a chalky, matte finish was more in keeping with the table's style. . It was exactly the change our dining room needed. The table now blends with its surrounding decor, highlighting the grey shades in our birch tree mural. 
My next project? Reupholstering and painting those white metal chairs. I may go Paris Grey on them as well, with a blue-and-white fabric for the cushions. I just need to go pick out the fabric! 

Old World Style Dresser

Hello everyone. It's been a while since I've written for the blog. My days have been super  busy lately with painting, writing, and adventuring with the hubs and the pup. Unfortunately, this good-kind-of-busy left me with little time to sit down and actually jot down some blog posts. Rest assured though-- I'm still out there crafting and writing. If you ever wonder what's become of us, give us a follow on Instagram @ampnabi for proof that we're still alive.

A recent Craigslist find had me whipping out my paintbrushes and paint cans for a quick furniture makeover. Last week, I spotted this old dresser for sale. I immediately knew that I wanted it, so a quick email chat ensued and I headed to the owner's home to pick it up. She informed me that the rickety old (and I mean old) dresser actually had belonged to her great-grandfather. She hated to part with it, but just truly didn't have any use for it. So, home it came with me!

My favorite thing about it? It still had all its hardware. So often I find beautiful pieces with beautiful hardware... just not all of it. When I saw that this dresser still possessed its knobs, I was super excited. Already, a vision was unfolding of what it be with a little elbow grease and a lot of chalkpaint.

Here's a glimpse of the "before"...

Beautiful, am I right?

I knew I wanted this antique piece to have an Old-World style. The words dark wax, dark wax, dark wax kept repeating like a mantra in my mind. But what color?

I kept it simple and went with colors I already owned: Old Violet (from our kitchen renovation) and Paris Grey (from my bedroom dresser makeover). The end result was awesome--even better than I anticipated--and surprisingly not that difficult.

Materials used:
Annie Sloan Chalkpaint- Old Violet
Annie Sloan Chalkpaint- Paris Grey
Annie Sloan Soft Dark Wax
mineral spirits
paper towels
paint brushes
old rags (for buffing and waxing)

Because the dresser was pretty scratched up, I had to give it a pretty thorough sanding. Now, typically. with Annie Sloan products you don't have to sand or prep the piece. That general rule is still very true. The sanding step served only to create a smooth surface. Over the years, the dresser had sustained some dings, nicks, and scratches. I simply wanted a smooth surface on top.

After sanding the dresser top, I cleaned and dusted the entire piece. Now it was finally ready to begin layering my paint. First, a base coat of Old Violet and then a top coat of Paris Grey. To get the peek-through of dusky-blue, I utilized a wet-rag distressing technique, simply rubbing away the still damp grey chalkpaint. Then,  I distressed the entire dresser using a high-grit sandpaper. A final coat of Dark Wax served as the topcoat-- and gave the piece its "Old World" patina.

And viola!

I have to say-- I'm thrilled with the way it turned out. True to the power of chalkpaint, this dresser went from shabby and neglected to stylish and unique in just two days.

Have a chalkpaint or furniture DIY you want to share? Link in the comments below!

Console Table Makeover

Happy Monday, everyone!

How was your Fourth of July celebration? Did you come through the other side, retaining all your fingers and toes? I hope so! Mark and I kept it simple this year. We stayed in Frederick to enjoy a cookout with friends and fireworks in the Baker Park. Which, by the way, if you're a local Marylander, you should definitely make the trip to Frederick for our Fourth celebration. This little town can put on a lightshow. Complete with a rousing soundtrack of patriotic songs, the firework show dazzles you with light and color before concluding with the national anthem played on the park's belltower. I shared a few images on my Instagram which you can find here.

Of course, holiday weekends always end, and Monday inevitably returns. Today at the Frederick shop, I've been working on a console table makeover. This piece is not vintage, but even newer pieces can benefit from an Annie Sloan chalkpaint makeover.

Originally, the piece was a butternut yellow color. Not bad-- but again, not great. Slightly one-dimensional. Here's a look at what the piece looked like beforehand.

To give the piece a more French Country feel, we decided to paint it in Annie Sloan Chalkpaint Graphite, the closest shade to black that Annie Sloan carries. Graphite is a really lovely color: a dusky chalkboard black. However, painting and waxing with Graphite can be a little more difficult than with other Annie Sloan colors, solely because the dark shade sometimes betrays any lint or dust that becomes trapped in the wax topcoat. Recently, I found myself in a vicious circle of painting, sanding, waxing, buffing on a custom Graphite bedroom set. The seemingly unending task would definitely be my version of Dante's hell. The problem turned out to be the buffing rags: somehow this ragbag had unreasonable amounts of lint that kept ruining the wax topcoat. Ugh!

Anyway, the console table project turned out to be much easier. No lint escapade anyway!

Materials used:
-Annie Sloan Chalkpaint in Graphite
-Annie Sloan Soft Clear Wax
-brushes
-rags (waxing and buffing)
-paper towels


As with any Annie Sloan project, this was ridiculously simple. We simply painted a few coats of Graphite onto the console table, distressed, and then added a topcoat of Soft Clear Wax. After buffing the topcoat to a nice sheen, we were done!

The end result is a piece that certainly is no longer one-dimensional. The charcoal grey color gives the table a more dramatic flair, while the original pale wood stain still peeks through. It would work well as an entryway table or console table behind a sofa.

If you have any chalkpaint or furniture DIY questions,

please don't hesitate to ask in the comments below!

Repurposed & Refined

217 W Patrick Street

Frederick, MD 

Disclaimer: This post was not sponsored, nor did I received any compensation for this post. All opinions expressed are truly my own. I just really love Annie Sloan chalkpaint and think you should try it out too!