Adventures in Distressing and Dark Wax with a Coffee Table

For some strange reason, I have taken it upon myself to help my parents (read: mom) furnish and decorate their lake house. Okay let's be real, there's more than one strange reason...

1. The majority of my stuff has been boxed in the garage, and having no place of my own to work on,  I needed a project.
2. The same reason I made my mom's wardrobe my responsibility sometime around middle school. Oh how my heart sang the day the last pair of mom jeans met their doom! .... Annnndddd now they're coming back in ugggg (don't tell my mom!)
3. A condition I've been aware of all my life but only recently found a word for. It's the very condition that compelled me to watch hours and hours of Trading Spaces, draw dream houses and clip home decor magazines. Just this week, my aunt so aptly put a name on it. As I told her how anxious I am to get into my new apartment and start unpacking and organizing, my aunt looked at me conspiratorially and said, "Oh I get it, we're nesters, Sarah, you and I." That's it, it's because I'm a nester. 

So anyway, that's how I found myself working on painting another piece of furniture. As we've furnished the lake house, we've found some great furniture places. The Virginia Furniture Market in Rocky Mount has been so great, in fact, that I bought my own couch there and hauled it back to Charlottesville and then to Richmond. This is the only place we've really found with decent prices where you can still get comfortable, high quality pieces. Otherwise, for these prices, you're going to feel the springs in your couches. The next great discovery was that VFM has an outlet, a warehouse sort of room just across the street where pieces go if they're overstocked or damaged. And that's how we came home with this coffee table. It was not the quite shade wood for our living room and had some deep scratches, but we had a plan. 

Although I had worked with Annie Sloan Chalk Paints, before (like this desk desk), this time I wanted to try my hand at distressing and using dark wax. So I did a little research here, here and here. These women have great tips about using chalk paint, but I noticed that even among these three, there are some discrepancies about the order of sanding and waxing and such. The point being, of course, that this stuff is very much about learning what works best for you and for a particular piece of furniture. There's definitely some room for creativity and playing around to achieve your desire effect. While I'll do a quick synopsis of what I did, I'm not going to get too detailed here as I know that I'm not exactly using the recommended tools and there are much more experienced Annie Sloan Chalk painters out there.

So, first I went by DéCOR in Carytown to pick out a color. I texted my mom this sample of "Old Ochre" with dark wax as if she could really tell from this photo how the color would actually turn out. Sometimes you just need a second opinion, even if you know you just want an approval of the decision you've already made, am I right?? The idea was to have something with a little more color than the Old White I've used in the past, but keep it fairly neutral. 

The next time I was at the lake house, I brought the table into the garage and got to work. I taped off the drawer so that I'd have a nice clean line inside and gave the entire piece a first coat, not worrying about the stroke directions too much. Then I flipped it over so that I could get solid coverage of those lovely Queen Anne legs. 

Between that first trip and the next, I added a second coat to the entire piece. Despite Annie Sloan fans' insistence that the stuff hides brush strokes so well, the top was looking a little swirly, so I gave the entire top a light sanding with a fine sanding block and gave it a third coat of paint.

Then came my least favorite part: waxing. Maybe it's because I never had my very own Mr. Meowgi to teach me the art of wax on wax off, but I find the whole process extremely tedious. But, it has to be done, especially with an everyday use item like a coffee table that will house beverages and board games. I applied two thin coats of Annie Sloan's clear soft wax with some wiping, buffing and light sanding in between. I wiped and buffed the second coat as well, never quite sure if I was doing it right. 

This is where my painting adventures have stopped in the past. And I almost stopped again. The table was perfectly covered. It was clean and dainty. I was pretty nervous to take a sanding block to all of that hard work. But after the first edge, I was hooked. I didn't consistently sand the edges like you may see on a commercially distressed Crate and Barrel piece. Instead, I tried to give each side a little asymmetrical - yet balanced - character. The curly molding on the edges made obvious spots for a some nice wear. 

Once again, I felt like I could stop. But after spending $40ish on a can of dark wax, I felt it was only right to give it a go. This is the process that really ages the pieces. I simply rubbed a little dark wax into the distressed areas, and lightly over the entire top, and wiped it right off. I probably used a dollar's worth of that whole can. 

I added some more clear wax after the dark wax because I read that you can neutralize some of the dark wax with clear wax if it's looking a little too heavy. I'm still not sure about the top. It seems swirly and smudgey and I'm not sure if it was my paint job, my clear wax job, my dark wax job or a combination of everything. Such a big flat surface makes inconsistencies really obvious, so in retrospect I may have added some sort of stripe design or something on the top to minimize that issue. But you know what? For now, it's done because this coffee table and I need a break from each other.  Overall, the color turned out a little whiter and plainer than I expected, but I think it works in the room. 

Next up on my chalk paint list: an old mirror and a pair of candle holders. Plus, I'd really like to try making my own chalk paint. I've heard you can do it a lot cheaper than name brand stuff, plus you can use any color paint, so it sounds like it's worth a try. Anyway, here's the before and after transformation below, which is great for pinning (hint hint). Thanks for reading! Dabble on y'all!