Furniture Glaze... AWESOME!!!

 Before the glaze...

After...

It's a pretty subtle change but it makes it more "worn" looking, like we've had it for years. Which we have, but a fresh coat of paint takes away all the character. If you click and enlarge the pictures you can really see it. There are two techniques, one where you cover it in the glaze and wipe it down. Too messy for me. I went with the other way, which is with a dry brush and a rag. With barely any glaze on the sponge brush, you brush it on where you want it (cracks, crevices, and corners work best), then sort of wipe the excess with the rag. And voila, you get a brand new depth to your piece. Yay for YouTube!!

More Yard Sale Finds

 Awesome fabric swatch for just a quarter! You can see behind the photo a vintage gigantic thread spool. Found that beauty for $3.

 Huge grass basket. I don't think it's an authentic Charleston basket but it sure has the look of one. Got this and the huge pinecones in it for $8.

Vintage frame. I originally had this print in it, but then switched that out for a stencil of a damask pattern on brown paper, on top of burlap. Only $1!

Old fruit crate for $10.

Dining Room Re-Do

 This is the before. Not too bad but my hand-me-down table I've had for 6 years and my Big Lots chairs were pretty dated in my opinion. And I feel like it just needed more.

 My tools. I will say sanding the table wasn't what I thought. My first attempt didn't get all the polyurethane off so I had to sand again. The second sanding did it, I got down to the white wood. I read online you should sand from coarse to fine grit, which is what I did. I sanded with 60 and then 220 to get a nice smooth finish. Only problem being the "dark walnut" stain I chose didn't sink in the pores of the wood because it was too finely sanded. The table as you see it has three coats of dark stain. At first I thought I would have to start over yet a third time but the longer I look at it, the more I like it. Especially with the dark chairs and grey table legs. It no longer has that yellowed look to it.

 The finished product! Pretty proud of myself!

The lighter table. I did distress it with a hammer, nail holes, a screwdriver head. So it definitely has some serious character now. You can see more of the grain of the wood because the stain did sink into the wood striations more, giving it more depth. I still need to give it a coat of Polyacrylic finish. The polyacrylic is a clear topcoat, unlike polyurethane, which gives the yellow appearance that the table had before. I don't think I did too bad giving new life to an old family table and bargain chairs! It will do for a few more years until I get my Pottery Barn dream farmhouse table :)