Thursday, July 30, 2015

Faux Stain, WHAAAAT!?!

I love the look of a good stain. The wood grain is gorgeously enhanced with the richness of stain. its simplistic and classic, but it is a MESS and TIME CONSUMING!
 OH did I mention it is a MESS!?
 
When I stated my table makeover I knew the look I wanted for the top. I tried a couple different stains to make sure I got the right combo that I liked, BEFORE I did the whole thing.
I wanted a weathered wood look, the vinegar stain I tried gave me JUST that look!
 
 
I sanded all my"sample" spots and got to staining the whole top with my vinegar stain mix.
 

 
 
GUESS WHAT!?
Instead of going that beautiful weathered wood look I saw on my sample section, it went an orangey red color!? YIKES not what I had in mind......
Back to sanding it was. I thought maybe a couple coats and it would work. Well I am here to tell you that is a BIG FAT LIE! All it does is make MORE work that no one has time for!
 
I then had this "brilliant" idea to just add grey stain and all would be well! After several MESSY coats that took FOREVER to dry between each coat. Lets not even talk about what my hands looked like for weeks! It was starting to come together but STILL not what I had envisioned!
 
 
After weeks of this little dance with stain and sanding, and having my dance partner stomp all over my feet, I had had ENOUGH!
 
Time to whip out my my BB Frosch chalk paint, already mixed up and ready to go, in their cute little squeeze bottles! I was a girl on a mission to get the "stained" look and color that I wanted! I was NOT getting that with traditional stain. Plus I was SOO OVER the mess and dry times! I wanted this table DONE!
 
I sanded one LAST time and got to work! Getting that stained look is SOOO EASY with BB Frosch! I squirted my first color, a dark grey. Make sure if you are using a Squeeze bottle to GO WITH THE GRAIN! trust me.... don't ask how I know! lol!
After the grey I added a super light greige and then a brown.
 
 
Take your damp brush and brush your paint, again WITH the grain! Then wipe. You can add more or less water to the brush as needed to move your paint around. Again wipe and repeat until you get your desired look.
 
I kept layering and playing until I got the color I wanted. It seriously took me LESS then 30 mins to COMPLETLY finish, I mean paint and have the paint DRY, my "faux stain" look.
 
 
Think of all the possibilities that await with this technique! Its one of the many techniques you learn, hands on, in my Workshops.
 
I Love all the looks I can achieve with BB Frosch! I am so glad to have found this product, as it has changed the way I refinish furniture!
 
So back to my "faux stained" table top, what do you think!? What will you "faux stain"?

 
Don't Forget to follow me on FB and IG!
 


Wednesday, July 29, 2015

Table Makeover

I have wanted a new table for a while. When we purchased our table it was perfect and fit our style, well what I thought was "our" style. I have now recognized that my style and the hubs style are different. The table set was the hubs style...... BUT I LOVED the counter height AND I loved the square shape. You can comfortably fit 8 people around it, it is perfect for playing games since the middle is equal distance for everyone :) I LOVE it! but the style... eh.... On top of it, I had been searching for stools and it was darn near impossible!
 
Random events took place and a neighbor was selling her SQUARE table, with features I wanted, PLUS 3 BAR STOOLS! I just HAD to have them. I promised the hubs that I would have it finished in a week since we did NOT have the space to store it! Well.......... 3 months I FINALLY started it, and 5 months later it was FINISHED!
 
It needed some work as there were names carved in and some crazy deep scratches.


 
 
I needed to sand A LOT! Thank goodness I had some good helpers!
 
 
 
ALMOST done.....
 
 
 
It was quit the process, which I will blog about that later :)  Here she is all DONE! I used BB Frosch Chalk Paint Powder from the "stained" top to all the painted parts! That is one of the MANY reasons I LOVE BB Frosch! you can get SOOO MANY looks with just ONE product! Seriously, this stuff is amazing! (now here is where I make my little plug :) .... I sell ALL BB Frosch products and you can see them pinned to the top of my FB pg :) )  I also added knew knobs to those cute little drawers on the ends.
 
What DO you think!? I LOVE it! I just have to get used to having a reg height table, after having a counter heights for YRS!
 
 

 
 
PRODUCT LIST :
 
OK you are gonna hate me! ALL the colors I used were custom mixed on the spot but I can tell you the table base color
 
Table base : 1/2 SPMP Sweetie Jane custom matched 1/2 SW watery
 
Brush on Lacquer on tops of table and chairs
Varathanes Waterbased Polyurathane on the rest.
 
new knobs from Hobby Lobby
 
BB Frosch Chalk Paint Powder was added to all the paint to make a creamy high quality chalk paint