I’m Heather from The Cozy Cape. I’m a TV producer by day… and habitual decorator by night. When I’m not in the television studio, I’m scouring local flea markets, yard sales and salvage stores and refinishing my finds. I hate paying full price for anything and I ADORE everything vintage and/or Shabby Chic. As Shaunna is spending some well deserved time globetrotting, she asked that I share a piece of my cozy cape with you. I know I’m a sucker for before and after shots… and I’m sure you are, too. These all have one thing in common: cheap transformations by paint! So without further adieu, here are a few of my favorite things.
My first attempt at distressing furniture was a pedestal table that I snagged from Craig’s List for for a mere $15 bucks! They were going to throw it away but at the last second decided to see if anyone wanted it. I’m so thankful that someone else’s trash turned out to be a little piece of my kitchen heaven.
- Slap on a a few coats of primer and paint. (Tip: If you want a color to show through once you begin chipping away, ask your local hardware store to tint your primer. This will save you a step because you won’t have to add a layer of colored paint.)
- Next, add a couple layers of your top coat color. Allow this to dry so it’s hard to the touch; however, don’t allow too many days to pass. You want the paint to be pliable for the next step.
- Grab a sander and a paint scraper.. and chip and sand away. You can beat it up as little or as much as you want. Make sure you hit up the edges. If this were truly an old piece, it’s edges would appear weathered.
- Lastly, choose a stain in a color that you like. Use an old cloth to apply the stain on the edges, corners and some of the places you’ve chipped. Then quickly wipe off and smudge the stain. This will give it the aged look. (Tip: If you don’t have stain, use brown shoe polish. It will give you the same look!)
- And you’re done! (If you’d like protect your new furniture, you can add a layer of polyurethane)
And before I wrap-up this post, A little birdie told me told me that Perfectly Imperfect readers love vintage finds, So here’s a little eye candy for you:
Heather from Cozy Cape did a great job! I especially love the sideboard/changing table. 🙂 Ash
Wow! You really have some great garage sales near you. Most furniture out in the Central Valley of CA is so used by the time it goes to garage sale it isn’t worth saving.
Thanks for sharing all your lovely refinishing. I have two dining sets ready to refinish in my garage and several dressers throughout my home that I’ve done
Great before and afters! That makes me want to get my butt to the flea market ASAP. And distress some furniture.
Hi Shaunna and Heather…great post. after lurking in blogland for 2+ years, I moved from painting picture frames and such to painting my dining room table and chairs! I found out it wasn’t such a big deal to paint something big. Look out furniture…here I come with brush in hand…