The JUNKtion: Cottage Distressed Table

Hi Friends!! I've been a bad blogger!! My Dad is here visiting for the extended weekend and I've been busy and keeping him and the husband busy. So, I didn't post as often as I had hoped. Shame on me. But we're back in business now.

I'm sharing with you a table I recently did for a client. This one was pretty easy because of the finish she wanted. Here was the final product (prior to waxing).

And here's what it started out like...

Very rough cosmetically, but stable and had lots of potential.

She had requested an antique white, with a heavy distress.

So, I used "Antique White" by Benjamin Moore. I started by giving the entire piece a light sanding by hand with a 120 grit paper to remove any loose pieces. This finish was basically falling off. I wanted to preserve as much as possible though so that the darkest color possibly would show through once I distressed it. I sent here these pictures at this point and she requested an even heavier distress...yay for me, that's my favorite part.

So, here's what it looked like after the two coats of antique white, followed by some major distressing with my Dewalt hand sander using a 220 grit paper.

I love this piece. I think it turned out so great. The entire piece was waxed using Minwax clear wax. I simply rubbed on a very thin layer of wax with an old t-shirt and buffed it out with the same t-shirt. To buff it, I rub in circles mainly and then rub along the grain of the wood and the direction of the paint. I do this until it creates a very smooth finish. You can kind of feel where you haven't buffed it well enough. Once you hit one of those spots, your rag will stick a bit, or drag just a tiny bit, due to the tackiness of the wax. Then you know to hit that spot a little more. To me wax is tricky at first when you start using it...I was intimidated in the beginning of my wax adventures, but now it is my absolute favorite finish on a piece.