Divine Distress!

So a couple of weekends ago the family & I went garage sale-ing…

I’ve never been a big garage sale or thrift store person before I started this little here blog…

I’ve always been embarrassed. Embarrassed to go up to someones stuff and dig around…

But I’m getting over that. Slowly. Or maybe quickly depending on who you ask!

I couldn’t believe the stuff we came home with, and spent under $30 total!

We found:

– the main subject of this post

– a lamp for the baby room (spotless and lovely)

– 30 practically brand new Scholastic books for the kids (for $3, oh ya baby!)

– an old kerosene lantern, that I don’t intend to use for anything except decoration (but apparently in the event of the apocalypse, it will work)

– 10 pet shops

– and about 20 hot wheels

All under $30. Works for me.

So back to the main reason for this post!

At a sale a couple of houses down, I spotted this little end table off to the side.

Looking lonely and very very sad.

But I could see the potential.

It’s white. I love white.

It’s distressed. I love distressed.

It’s old.

It has a farm house vibe.

It’s love at first sight.

I asked how much. At first the guy said $2? I said what?! The wife heard, and said how about $10? Nice. Oh well.

It cost me $10. And the money went to charity. Win-win.

My goal for this table was not to restore it to a brand-new vision of beauty.

Oh no, people pay good money for distressed lovelies such as these.

I wanted to keep it distressed and protected under a thick layer of varathane.

Sure the paint was peeling off, but I knew I could save it.

I had a vision, and it wasn’t going to take much to get there.

Here’s what I did:

The table was very distressed, but somehow the legs stood the test of time. They barely had a scratch on them. They looked like a fabulous pair of high heel shoes with a garbage bag dress. I had to fix that.

Nothing a little sandpaper couldn’t fix.

So before I painted the table, I scraped off the big chunks of peeling paint, then carefully sanded it down to smooth out the surfaces. Then using sandpaper, I went at the legs so they looked as distressed as the rest of the table.

Enter spray paint. My friend.

I was going to just paint it using a brush, but the helpful staff at our local big box home store, suggested that I spray on the varathane instead. Using a spray would prevent a paint brush from smearing around paint chips and stuff. Smart. Yes.

So after all that was said and done, here it is! I know it doesn’t seem to look much different, but that was the whole point. I wanted to keep the charm, but seal it under shellac so-to-speak.

Voila! I love the sheen. I love the beaten down look. I love this table.

She’s got great legs, no?!

Pretty. Pretty. Pretty.

Thanks for reading!

Lovely Linking:
Centsational Girl, Thrifty Decor Chick, Funky Junk, Miss Mustard Seed, Not Just a Housewife

51 Comments

What a great find and you did a nice job preserving the distress. When I began to go to Estate Sales, I would feel weird too about going through people’s stuff, and sad about the stuff people collect through their lives.