Foyer Paint Project

I was due for a craft fail sooner or later... I always have crafty hair-brained projects in my head and, for the most part, they work out the way I want.  This project did NOT fall into that category.  For better or worse, I thought I would share my recent chalk paint fail with you.

We bought this narrow hall table at a garage sale I while back.  It was only $5.00 and I thought it would be nice in our hall or our tiny bathroom.  We bought it and for several months it sat, untouched, until last weekend when I decided to paint it.

Top Left: I decided to use the color "Duck Egg" by Annie Sloan.  Her chalk paint is a two part system that I've used before and recently she just introduced several new wax colors!  The chalk paint is water-based and thus can be diluted (awesome), and the wax seals everything.

Bottom Left: This is the "before" of our little table.

Right: I just think the legs are cool and it has this neat hardware on each leg that looks sort of like a key.  Adds interesting character.

I got to painting!  I used maybe 1/4th of my small jar of paint.  A little goes a long way especially if you thin it out with a little water.

More pictures during the painting process!  I love Abby's messy mug photo bombing!  She seemed very confused by the process.

After the paint dried, I was ready for the waxing phase.  In previous projects, I've used clear wax.  It brings out the color more (usually a shade or two darker) but goes on very well and makes the piece feel better to the touch.  This time, I decided to go with a darker wax, partly to experiment and partly because the piece already seemed antiquey. 

These are various mid-wax pictures.  Right away you can see how it drastically changed the color.  I was already prepared for the color to darken a little, but not quite SO much.

I thought the legs looked okay but the rest of the piece turned out differently.  Pictured above from left to right you can see the wax heavy (left) to eventually wiped off (right).

This is the "finished" table.  It doesn't look terrible but I honestly don't like it.  Did I ruin this little piece?  It's as if the wax soaked into the wood differently in different spots.  We think maybe the top pieces are a different wood than the legs.

So there you have it!  I'm still trying to decide whether to sell this piece or paint it again.  On the bright side, if I'm going to mess up the paint color or wax color, I'd rather do it on a cheap (and small) item! Silver-linings!

That's it for today!