Side Table Upcycle

I love colour, texture and quirkiness and very slowly I am starting to change my decore to reflect this. It is a little challenging to experimenting with looks especially when on a budget. I am hoping my home will eventually have a bright Gypsy/ Bohemian feel. I can't afford to go out to a showroom and pick up pieces I like. Instead I have to upcycle old furniture and accessories.

Normally doing up pieces of furniture takes some time and effort by sanding, doing undercoats of paint and then doing several coats of the top colour. Allowing for proper drying time would take a couple of days to complete a project. So I became very interested when I saw a range of chalk paint that makes the job much quicker. Made by Canterbury Blue this chalk paint can be applied without primer/undercoat. It is also very quick to dry reducing the time between re-coats. If you need any inspiration on what you could use this paint for, then check out their facebook page.

I have always said that opening a can of nice coloured paint is like opening a 'can of happy'. There is something so special about turning something drab into something nice. When these pottles arrived in the mail, I was super excited. I am calling them 'Pottles of Joy' because these are so much fun to play with. 

I had this very drab side table in the shed. There is nothing special about it so it became the perfect candidate for experimenting on.

I had only bought a limited range of colours due to budget restraints but this range of paints comes in 30 colours (from memory).  I raided the kids' small paint brushes to work on the legs. I really need to get myself some decent small brushes. Normally I just use normal size brushes but to do the legs required some fiddly work. As I am not a fine artist I have added strings of beads around where the colours meet to hide any bad joins and to give the work some extra bling.

 I tried to do a stencil design on the top but I stuffed it up so I had to redo the top. After I painted it and sanded it in places, I applied the wax which gave it a nice clean smell and finish.

I had so much fun with this paint and I have now finished 3 other pieces and have several more projects on the go. So check back tomorrow for the next project reveal.

Froggy Fun

I liked this little side table but it wasn't in the best shape. I bought it second hand and it has had bad repair work in the past. At some point it had a draw but now there is a wooden panel attached in the hole. There are large gaps around the board and it looked very poor. 

It took a while to sand back the varnish, add filler to the gaps and do the undercoat. Then it was time to do the top coats of paint. I was so excited to use this tint. It is called Leap Frog and I think it is such a happy colour. I was out by the shed painting away with a silly smile on my face.

Luckily I really like the colour because I still have a lot of paint left in the tin. Being a scrooge, I'm not letting it go to waste so be prepared to see it pop up again in the coming weeks. My dully lit lounge room doesn't do justice to how vibrant the colour is. It is nice to have a splash of colour in there and hopefully soon there will be other funky pieces around the house.