Farmhouse Side Table

You've probably noticed that I haven't posted in a few months on here. 

I have still been finding pieces and projects, but have not had much motivation to actually work on them. For this, I am attributing it to my new real-world job that I started last November. It has certainly been keeping me busy, but for the rest of the year, I am making a dedicated effort to work on projects for the rest of the year. When I was really working on this, I couldn't wait to get out of work to go home to work on this. I missed that little bit of excitement in my nights and now it is back!

Anyways, so with this table, found it as a local Goodwill. Like I do with all my projects, I fall in line with all the details, original hardware and great lines. It was also marked as solid mahogany. It was pretty scratched up, had collected quite a few dust bunnies and looked like some sort of liquid has been dropped on it. 

So to start, I started with my Shop-Vac (Christmas gift from my dad from 2014, thank you Dad!) and go rid of the bunnies and spider webs. Next, I used mixed TSP and hot water to wash it down. I was really hoping this would clean whatever liquid had dropped on this table so I wouldn't get any bleed through in the paint. Then, I lightly sanded with 150 grit sand paper and gave it one final sweep with the Shop-Vac. Here she was before I started painting. 

My eye usually only sees in neutral colors, so of course I wanted to go white for this table. I decided to use Behr's New House White. For my projects, I have been using Behr paint for quite some time. Behr Premium Plus Ultra has always been my preference for the specific product, in hopes that it will really block stains. For this project, I wanted chalk paint so I could distress it. I used the same recipe that I have always used, one part water and one part Plaster of Paris mixed first, then three parts paint. Works like a charm every time.

So I start spraying with my Home Right Finish Max sprayer and get the first coat on. Within a few minutes, I could already see the bleed through [insert sad face here]. From my experience, there are just some stains that come through no matter what. That is when I go to Zinsser Shellac primer in the spray can form. I have used this on multiple projects and it has blocked every single stain, absolutely love it and highly recommend. They occasionally go on sale at Home Depot, so I usually try to get quite a few when they do. 

Then, the table just needed two more coats of paint to get full coverage. Here is a sneak peak after I did some slight distressing:

One part of this table that I did not take pictures of before/during/after that I am sad about is the hardware. It was so tarnished, but had such great character. So one morning as I was getting ready for work, I put the pieces in a bowl and sprayed on the liquid form of Barkeepers Friend. It sat for probably about 20 minutes. Then I washed it all off with a scrubby and couldn't believe how the hardware looked brand new again. Pictures next time for sure. 

Then to seal the table, I sprayed on General Finish HPTC in Satin. Here is the final table, I absolutely love it. Can't wait to start on some more projects again. 

What do you all think? 

Thanks so much for reading, hope everyone is enjoying 2017 so far!

-Shayla

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