Pinterest Inspired

Our neighbors have been curious as to what we are doing since they are always seeing us working outside and hear Dad sawing and sanding at all hours of the day.  We showed our neighbor, Monica, some of our projects that we have been doing.   She happens to be moving across the country in a week and she said she had an end table that she didn't want anymore and asked us if we would want it.  And of course we will not turn down a free table! 

The top surface needed some love so Dad sanded it down.  Mom painted the base and legs (not pictured here because we got so excited to start working on this that we forgot the before photos).  Since it was a free end table I wanted to try something funky.  I saw some ideas on Pinterest with different patterns and checker styled tables.  I combined some of the ideas and techniques to make my own creation.  I first painted the surface white.  I then cut the shape I wanted to use a bunch of times and laid them out.  

I painted the blank spaces with a medium toned grey that i mixed from some white and black paint we had. This is when I knew it was going to be distressed.  I didn't want to put too much effort into tracing all the stencils and painting inside all the lines so I took the shortcut and went with a distressed style.  

 
 I then peeled off all the stencils and mixed a darker grey.  I painted every other white space with the darker grey.  I then lightly sanded it all to add to the distressed look.  To seal it i mixed a touch of grey paint with a gel medium and spread it over the top.  This helped make the white spaces not so bright.  At first I didn't like the texture it formed so I lightly sanded it.  In the end I actually liked the texture of the table.  To finish it off, Dad painted the hardware with a fresh coat of silver. 
 

 I posted this on Craigslist this morning for $35.  I got an email this afternoon that said a couple was interested in this for their daughter's room but was wondering if we could do $25.  Since it was free, and we don't want to have to bring it down to NJ for the yard sale if we don't have to we agreed to $25 with no argument.  They said they would come during the week to look at it but they ended up calling this evening saying they were free now.  They stopped by and liked it.  Another item sold! And this one was by far our quickest sale, only 8 hours since it was posted!