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!

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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