Friday, July 13, 2012

A Mixed Bucket of Paint

     So, you know how it is, you've painted a few rooms, maybe some furniture and who knows what else.  There is a little bit of paint left from each project and you just hate to throw it out, so your husband decides to mix them all together and see what you get.  Usually it turns out to be some type of brown, but this time it became a really interesting pale gray green.  I know, this picture really doesn't capture it very well but I'm not a very good photographer.  The final picture is closer to the color.

  First let me tell you about this table.  The garage sale I found it at was run by a guy who used to have an antique business, but now just wanted to reclaim his shop.  What a great time I had that day!  I fell in love with this table.  I think mostly I love the lines of the base.  I even liked the old weathered, almost burnt look of the base.
I wish I had taken a picture of it before I stripped the top, it was pretty horrid.  It was some type of mustard yellow glaze or something.  It was a thick gloppy mess.  So anyhow, I stripped it, then my husband puttied in where the top was screwed to the base.  Of course after I bought it we discovered that the top wasn't the original.  Oh well, I'm not selling it as an antique, just a cool little table.  A little rough sanding and I was ready to paint.  OK, it sat this way for a over a month.  I just couldn't decide what color to paint the top.  I had used our mixed paint on an old plant stand that I bought at the same sale and loved it, so what the heck, it's only paint, it can be re-done.  I brushed it on because I kind of liked the streaks (plus I didn't have any roller trays left). Then I scratched back some the paint on the edges.  Next was glazing.  Here are a couple of tricks I learned.  First, you know those 400 plastic knives you have left out of the 500 pack that was such a bargain at the warehouse store, they make great stir sticks for your small cans of paint and stain.  Second, you need to use a very, very dry brush when you use stain as your glaze.  Just use the little bit of stain left on the stir stick, then brush it off on some scrap wood, then dry brush your piece.  I cleaned up the base with some paint thinner, then sprayed on a satin poly.  I'm taking it in next week to sell, but don't know how much to ask for it.  Any suggestions?

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