French Twist- Giving a Table a Vintage French Look!

French Twist- Giving a table a vintage French Look! by Korrie

I am tickled to be writing a guest post for Remodelaholic! Thank you, Cassity, for asking me.

I write a little blog called Red Hen Home. Why "Red Hen"? Well, my husband thinks I have a little bit of a "red hen" complex--that is, I have a "Well, then I'll do it MYSELF!" kind of attitude.

I don't really disagree with him. ;-)

I started blogging close to a year ago so I would have someone to share my little projects (mostly furniture, a little decorating, and even sometimes...knitting) with...my husband tries, but he just isn't able to generate a lot of enthusiasm for my obsession!

I have a definite love for typography...letters, numbers, symbols, whatever! When I saw a beautiful piece of clip art at The Graphics Fairy, I used it to turn this table:

into this table!

You can see the whole "how-to" in my post A Little French Chocolate.

It was such a fun (although back-breaking) project
that I wanted to see if I could do it again!
Shall we see??

I found this little table at Deseret Industries (that's Utah's "Goodwill"). It was only $5! Do you see those legs?? I love that barley twist!


Oh...here's why it's only $5...the finish on the top is shot, and one of the planks is completely unglued.

I couldn't be happier!

The first order of business was to sand down the table top to remove the old finish--but I didn't worry about any dings or scratches. That's just character!

I re-glued the plank back with it's brothers. This is the first time Liquid Nails has failed me. Gorilla Glue came to the rescue!


Then I spent a happy couple of hours searching for just the right graphic at the Graphics Fairy again. This is the one I chose.

And no, I have no idea what it means! I even tried an on-line translator, and all I can tell you is that it may have something to do with hardware, and the last line says "of all kinds & all styles."

Works for me!

After printing my image, I took it to Office Max and had it copied onto overhead transparency film. Using a borrowed overhead projector, I set up shop on my kitchen floor after my little ones had been sent to bed!



A smart person, a wiser person, a less-impatient person, would have figured out how to raise this setup off of the floor after the first table.

I...am not that person.

So I planted myself on the floor with my little bottle of acrylic paint and a brush, and spent the next couple of hours in all sorts of contortions on the floor.

It's another sign of impatience that I painted with the clamps still on!

Here's the initial result:

Next day I painted the bottom with Sherwin Williams Creamy paint, distressed the black lettering on top of the table, and applied a coat of Minwax Antique Walnut with an old rag.


Later I distressed the paint and glazed the table legs with Minwax Jacobean stain.

And here's what it looks like now!

I moved the table into my front room to get some additional shots. I have two arm chairs in there with one of the first tables I ever painted in between them (painted in the days before I knew about distressing or glazing). I moved the old table (that looks newer) out, and put the new table (that looks older) in...

It may never leave!

Hope you enjoyed your peek into Red Hen Home.
Come visit soon!

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