DIY: Basic Antiquing

     Reduce, reuse, upcycle, part 2!  In honor of Earth Day this Sunday, I thought I'd share a little project.  You know that saying "One mans trash is another mans treasure?"  Well I'm not one for dumpster diving, but when JJ and I were engaged, we were driving down the alley of my old apartment in Brentwood and stumbled upon this wooden coffee table next to a dumpster.  And here is a little glimpse of why JJ is my perfect match, there were no words, just one look at each other and he pulled over to check it out.  Now JJ was in need of a coffee table, and I was really into antiquing at the time (and still am).  We looked around, checked out the table, and loaded it into his car.  


     We sanded down all the rough spots and filled in the gaps with Wood Filler. Then we covered it with two coats of white paint and chose "Gravel" (from Restoration Hardware) to be our top coat. We also decided to paint the inside of the drawers and chose "Flint" (another R.H. color).


     After letting it dry, we sanded the top coat down until the white paint began to show through - hoping for that "antiqued" look. Then for the final touch we added some cute paper lining on the inside of the drawers. 

And here is how it turned out ....

      Now, I wouldn't recommend dumpster diving all over your area, but this is just a reminder to go to yard sales and flea markets with an open mind, you may find something that, with a new paint job and some love, could be a unique piece in your home.  

     For the drawer lining I found this cute paper at Papyrus (it's actually wrapping paper).  I traced the opening of the drawer, and then, using an x-acto knife I cut a little extra off each side of the paper.  Then I used spray adhesive to hold the paper down.  I'm not sure if this is the proper way to do things, but I just wanted to let you know what I did, and the drawers still look great. 

     Now the coffee table has new life, and we love it because it was a project we had fun doing together! 




LLLove,
Jess