Bench Gets White Chalk Paint

Bench Before Paint

A bench such as this one provides a great place to sit practically anywhere in your  home. But like with many pieces of furniture, after a while you tend to overlook this well-loved item. You may feel a bit guilty because you still love it, but know it needs that special something. In this case, the bench was destined to be a brand new look, which was accomplished by applying Annie Sloan's "Old White" chalk paint and finished with Annie Sloan's clear wax to seal it.

Bench After Paint

By its nature, this bench was a very labor intensive item to work on because of the amount of surface area, and of course, the spindles, which are difficult to paint. Spindles are my least favorite aspect of any furniture painting, restoration or refinishing job because they are, well, spindles. (Don't get me started!)

Chalk paint doesn't require a great deal of sanding or other prep work commonly needed to guarantee a greatly finished painted product, but I chose to lightly sand the entire bench anyway because that's just how I roll. Call it a pet peeve, but I feel that a little bit of sanding is better than no sanding.

I chose to brush the paint instead of spraying because I feel that you still get better coverage and a thicker, richer end product with brushing and for this piece of furniture, it worked quite well. That's another benefit of chalk paint; you don't see the brush strokes as it dries very smooth. The Old White paint was a light and bright color which literally changed the personality of this bench from outdated to outstanding. I added the customized stencil flower for a little something extra and it looked great. This bench received clear wax only so it will be protected from scratches and will be easy to care for.

Side Table

Side Table Before

Side Table After

I saw this little table at a resale shop for $6.86. I had been looking for a table such as this to keep my quilting supplies organized because it has a bottom shelf, so when I stumbled upon it, I bought it. The table was originally used with a built-in lamp, which I removed as I hadn't planned on using it that way. The lamp was ugly and in the way.

Never underestimate a smaller project! Just because this table was small, didn't mean it wasn't difficult to refinish. The spindles, I knew, would make it difficult because the area between them was hard to get to, so I ended up removing them and sanding that entire strip, much easier. The spindles were also spinning around, since they had not been secured to the table. That was my first priority, to make sure they stayed put, so after I had spent many days and hours stripping, sanding and refinishing the table, I used my pin nailer to secure the spindles so they no longer rotated. The hole left from where the lamp base once was secured had to be filled in, so I ended up cutting a small piece of wood to best match the opening, then glued it in place.

Ugh, this was a tedious, frustrating job, as most of them for myself turn out to be, but nevertheless, I'm happily using the table to keep my quilting supplies neatly tucked away underneath, on the shelf instead of dangling all over my floor!