The love affair with all things French continues...

If you recall from my previous post, I am loving all things French right now. Click here to see why. After purchasing the first piece of "French-like" furniture I could find from a local consignment store, I set out into the world of furniture refinishing. I was slightly nervous due to my complete lack of experience in this arena, but the beauty of it was that I was attempting to refinish a very inexpensive side table (not my most loved piece of furniture in our home). If I messed it up, the world would indeed keep on turning. Here is what I did:

• Copied the Nester's blue paint color (I used oil based paint though)


• Lightly hand sanded the entire piece to rough it up a little so the paint would adhere


• Painted on a gray primer (this just happened to be the only color primer I had in the house, but it turned out to be a blessing during the "antiquing" stage of the process)


• Lightly hand sanded and then applied the first coat of blue paint with a brush and let dry


• Lightly hand sanded again and applied a second coat of the blue paint


• After the second coat was dry I took out my husband's sander and started hitting the piece of furniture "here and there" scuffing it up as I went. I had intended to do this step by hand with steel wool, but I got lazy and plugged in the easy way out...it worked fine. The gray primer shows through in some places and really compliments the blue color.


• I chose to seal and finish the furniture with 'Helmsman Spar Urethane' in a satin sheen (which I bought at Home Depot). This was a very quick last step (it only took about 10 minutes to brush on) but one that will help protect the furniture from the inevitable later abuse. This last step is totally optional, just personal preference.
  

Here was the before:

So my next project are these two lovelies that I found at another consignment store....hmmm, should I change the fabric?