An experiment to reimagine a small terra cotta pot into a faux concrete one.
Not bad for a first attempt. May use sea salt next time and see what that does.
Mixed calcium carbonate with Missouri Limestone Paint Compamy chalk-style paint with “Coal Shovel” and painted on the pot with a foam dauber to get as much texture as possible.
Painted a light coat of “Cupboard Green over that. Made sure I painted the inside, too.
I didn’t do a light sanding after adding the green. In hindsight, I wish I would have done that to bring out a little of the black.
Painted a light coat of “Sunday Silver” over the green.
Painted a light dry brush of “Winter Gloves” over the “Sunday Silver.
Sanded a little by hand with 220. No sealer necessary.
I added couple of faux cactus from Dollar Tree for a new look.
What a makeover! This awesome slate topped huge coffee table was a custom job. We brought it back from the dead as it was in pretty rough shape with a finish that was the old thick rough and nasty varnish. Prepping is definitely the key! Quite the project, right? But once we finish, it will be perfect in the young person’s apartment (once moving day occurs). For now, it will go in mom and dad’s basement family room and still be used by young people. 🙂
The first thing you need to do is spend some time contemplating how to remove the top. Oh, and to find a place to store the slate top until needed again. No problem, it resided under our living room couch until needed. 🙂
It looks like there are screws. I think we will remove the top to make it easier to paint and to see if any repairs are needed. After many minutes of contemplating, the screws were removed. The only repair needed actually was one section on the bottom needed some glue.
The top sanded easily to get it smooth enough to paint. A good cleaning and two coats of our Missouri Limestone Paint Company chalk-style paint “Coal Shovel” and two coats of Varathane Crystal clear water based polyurethane in satin finish later, it was ready for curing.
The top is looking great!
Sanding the bottom piece wasn’t working at all. Danny got a good amount off with stripper, then I did another round of stripping with mineral spirits mixed in. That helped a lot. Then another round of mineral spirits. Cleaned well them sanded again. Used a tack cloth to get rid of any sanding dust. Then cleaned really well again. That finally got it smooth enough for painting.
Whoever says you don’t need to prep if you use chalk-style paint doesn’t know what they are talking about. It was definitely a process on this bottom piece!
Painted with two coats of Missouri Limestone Paint Company chalk-style paint “Coal Shovel” (https://sharsumpaint.com/missouri-limestone-paint-company-colors/) and sealed with two coats of Varathane water based polyurethane in satin finish. This table is now ready to be put back together!
What an amazing difference!
Now came the task of lining the top and bottom holes for screwing it back together.
Bamboo skewers to the rescue! All holes are now lined up perfectly!
The beautiful slate top was rescued from under the couch and got a good drink of Wise Owl Lemon Verbena Salve. What a difference that made! It smells good now, too!
So happy how it turned out. This table is eventually going in a young person’s apartment. I can just see a group of young people gathered around it. Sitting on colorful pillows that could easily be stored underneath.
There will be a lot of fun times gathered around this coffee table! This is one sturdy, beautiful table now!Love the black rippled slate top!
I created this fun coffee bar sign. It was easy and turned out great!
I started with an 11×14” thin canvas board from Dollar Tree and a package of Priss wall stickers from Dollar General. I used Mod Podge to glue them down and Varathane water-based polyurethane satin finish to seal them.
I laid out the words in a design I liked and then took the backing off the first one to apply. I saw right away the adhesive wasn’t sticking well to the canvas board so I made the decision to use Mod Podge to glue each one down.
Once they were all down and sealed well l gave them another coat of Mod a Podge.
I will usually use a hair dryer to help the dry time and use my fingers to press down to help alleviate any lifting or bubbles.
I didn’t care for the gloss of the Mod Podge so I used the Varathane satin finish polyurethane to seal and gave it two thin coats. I like to use a damp car sponge to apply polyurethane. It now had a nice matte finish.
I thought a black frame would set it off. I didn’t want to go to Dollar Tree so I started searching for an 11×14” frame I might have. Score! I found a frame and it is vintage! I know it is vintage because it held my husband’s 1971 college diploma. Lol! Not anymore!
I kept the glass in as it will help with durability.
And there you have it! An adorable black and white 11×14” coffee bar sign. Wouldn’t it look great paired with a set of Rae Dunn coffee mugs?
It was in good shape, but dated. It needed a makeover. We had sanded the top almost all the way, but it still needed a bit more to get it down to bare wood.
However, life got in the way and so it sat in our basement waiting patiently for its makeover.
A few days ago, it happened. I took the heat gun and stripped away the rest of the residue on the top, then sanded it smooth and hand scuffed the base. I cleaned it well.
I couldn’t wait to try out the DIY wood aging stain recipe I found and mixed up. It had been sitting waiting to be used for several weeks. I had tried it right after I mixed it up on a board. I think it reacts differently on different types of wood and it really hadn’t had a chance to darken the wood much. But, it turned out with a beautiful, natural wood look that I loved.
The stain is a mix of used coffee grounds, vinegar and steel wool. It doesn’t look very pretty in the jar, but wait until you see it on this oak table top!
The interesting thing is you don’t see how it is working until it dries. At first it looks like it is just darkening the wood (and it darkens more as it dries) but when it dries, ahhhh….there is that beautiful grayish cast….just like old barn wood that has been left out in the weather for years. And this photo doesn’t even do it justice.
Hmmm…..At this point I happened to notice a strange formation in the grain going across the top. In my eye, I saw a llama head and neck. There are actually 4 of them, seeming to march in a line across the table, but this one stands out more than others. Still not seeing it? Let me help you. Lol
So now I had the stain on, but I wanted to really enhance the old wood look so I sealed it with a mix of liming wax and clear wax.
I wanted to open up the grain for the liming wax to get into it and stay so I used a wire brush and carefully ran it across the table top, going with the grain.
The liming wax I used is by Briwax. I mixed some of it with Howard’s Chalk-tique light wax. You can use any brand of clear wax, though. Mixing them together gives you a little more control over the liming wax and provides a nice finish. I think you can purchase both of these products from several places like Amazon online.
The next photo shows half the table top with the liming wax combo and half without. What a difference the liming wax makes!!
Can you see my 4 marching llamas? I know…. they are hard to see. Lol
Let me help. 🙂
Here is the top all waxed and buffed. Again, pics don’t really show just how beautiful this table top is. The sheen of the wax is gorgeous!
By the way, did you know wax helps repel dust? So using wax on furniture that isn’t going to get a lot of heavy use will save you dusting time, too!
The little metal feet needed a makeover, too, so I took them off and spray painted them a metallic gold. So pretty now!
Now it was time to paint the base. Sometimes I use primer, sometimes I don’t. I didn’t on this one. I had just cleaned and scuffed it up really well. In retrospect, I wish I had primed this and I wouldn’t have had to use as many coats of chalk-style paint, especially since I wasn’t going to distress this piece. I used 4 coats of Missouri Limestone Paint Company “January”, a pure white. You tend to need more coats when using white or very light colors.
But all is well as chalk-style paint dries so quickly. Once the paint coats had all dried well I sealed the base with several thin coats of Varathane Crystal Clear water based polyurethane. I never have had a problem with yellowing in the 6 years I’ve been using it.
The secret is thin coats and no drips or pooling. I use a round damp car wax sponge to put on a thin coat and follow it with a sponge brush if needed to clear up any drips or pooling. For long areas I go in one direction only and work quickly. You can’t go back and forth or overwork the sealer or you will have a mess as it dries so quickly.
And now…. drum roll ….. My finished “llama table!” 😉 What a difference, right?
SharSum Paint 