{DIY $20 Vintage-Looking Table}

Do y'all get magazines each month?  I get two: Southern Living and Country Living.  My favorite of the two would have to be Country Living.   When the May issue came in the mail last month, I can't tell you how many times I looked at it!  It is probably the best issue ever, in my opinion.  There was one photo from an article called "600 Square Feet of Thrifty Style" that I think I drooled on.

{Photo by Victoria Pearson via Country Living}

Something about this photo just spoke to me.  I love the peacefulness of the room, the colors, the accessories, and THAT VINTAGE TABLE!  After looking at the photo obsessively many times, I decided that I just had to have a table like that.  I had the perfect wall for it in my craft room, and since my dad is pretty good with tools and building stuff, it couldn't be that hard to attempt to make one like it with his help.  So I took my dog-eared magazine to my dad's for us to come up with a plan.  Here's what we came up with, keeping in mind the dimensions of the wall I wanted to put the table on...

You can click on this picture to see a larger version.

I went to the lumber store near my house to buy the wood, but they didn't have 2x2's, so I had to buy fence pickets, which are the same size.  They were treated, which I hated, but it's all they had.  (That's why the legs in the unfinished table photos will look different from the other wood on the table.)  The lumber cost me $20, and all the other supplies either my dad or I had already. Anyway... First, we cut all our pieces according to the cut list above.  We cut the two 13 1/2" pieces to look like the inspiration table.  (See photo below.)  Then we made a box using the two 45 1/2" 1x6's and the two 13 1/2" 1x6's.  We attached the pieces to each other with wood glue and nails.

When the box was complete, we used a scrap piece of 1x2 to create a brace in the middle of the box to attach the top boards to.

We actually attached the piece sideways--different than my dad (J-Man) is holding it in the photo.  Then we started attaching the three 50" 1x6's to the top with wood glue and nails.  (I promise I really did help on this even though I'm not in any of the photos...)

Once we had the table top attached, it was time to attach the legs with wood glue and screws.  (I neglected to put screws on the supply list, but you could use nails if you wanted.)

At this point I was a bit scared.  It looks like a spindly legged baby horse.  You know...when the baby horse's legs look like they are WAY too big for his body when he's first born.  But I know from experience that there's, more often than not, a stage in a project where it seems like the project will become a weird looking disaster, so I didn't give up on my little pony yet...   The next step was painting the table.  I sanded it down really well.  Then I covered the top of the table and sprayed the bottom with white spray paint.  (I primed the legs with Kilz spray first since they were made from treated lumber.)

A vintage table would not be crisp white, though, nor would it be completely smooth.  So I got out nails, pliers, screws, chains, and my hammer and banged up the table pretty well.  Then I glazed the table base with Ralph Lauren glaze mixed with black paint.  (Brush on the glaze and then wipe it off with a cloth.)

The glaze stays in all the dings and dents, and it takes the new off the white.  When the base of the table was finished, I had to figure out how to make the top look like the inspiration table.  There are many tutorials on the web about using steel wool and vinegar, like this one from Our Adventures in Home Improvement.  I decided to try it.

I brushed it on and waited with excitement...and nothing really happened.  I put coat after coat of the mixture on, but it just didn't look like I wanted it to.  (I neglected to take picture during this part because I was getting really frustrated.)  Yeah, it looked a bit darker, but it wasn't the old barn wood look I was going for.  I did a Google search for aging new wood.  People were saying that when doing this technique, you don't have to sand the wood first.  I guess you shouldn't sand it first.  I saw that you can use lime (definitely didn't have that around the house...), tea, and Clorox to age wood too.  So while the table top was still soaked with vinegar, I brushed some tea on it.  Still not what I was looking for.  While the wood was still wet, I put some Clorox in a cup and brushed it on the top, going with the grain.  THAT was more like what I wanted!  (I'm not sure that you would get the same effect if you brushed straight Clorox on dry wood, so be careful!)  I let the table dry for a couple of days to before I put a sealer on it.

I like to use Polycrylic as a sealer.  I put a few coats on the entire piece.  When I finished, I was so flippin' excited!!!  I have my very own table that was featured in Country Living!!!  Okay, not really.  But it looks A LOT like the table from the magazine, and it only cost about $20 to make!

I am so in love with the finish on the top of the table!

The vinegar or either the Clorox caused the nails to rust, which I love.

I like how the glaze makes the imperfections in the table stand out, which adds more vintage-like goodness.

The table is part of makes this area of my craft room my favorite.

If you haven't checked out the entire craft room makeover reveal, you can find it here.  

Wooden Canvas

   Hi!  Recently, my sister got married and moved into a new apartment.  She's been decorating her new home, and informed me that she needed a large piece of art to go over her new fabulous sectional.  She said she was going to look at Goodwill or somewhere like that.  There's no doubt you can find pieces to use at places like that, but sometimes they need some work.  So being the person I am that loves a new project, I volunteered to make her a piece of art.
   She couldn't exactly tell me what size she wanted, so I was just going to have to "wing it."  I knew how much blank space she had over the couch, so I knew I could figure it out.  First, I took a trip to the craft store.  A nice canvas the size I wanted was almost $60!  I knew that wasn't going to work, so I headed to Lowe's.  I went to the precut plywood section.  (I couldn't get a large sheet because I was driving a small car.)  I looked at the available sizes and decided on a 2'x4' piece.  I didn't get the thickest piece because I thought it would be too heavy, and I didn't get luan (the really thin kind).  I got the in-between thickness.  I didn't want her to just have a piece of wood hanging on her wall: I wanted it to look like a canvas.  So I purchased half inch thick by two inch wide strips of wood.
   When I got to my dad's house, he and I put the wood together using small nails and wood glue.  We had to cut the wood strips to fit, and we carefully lined everything up to make sure there wouldn't be any cracks or overhangs.  Here's what the finished "canvas" looked like:

We used plywood squares to nail into so we didn't split the wood when nailing.

I filled any cracks with caulking.  (You could definitely use wood putty; I just didn't have any.)

   The total cost of the canvas was around $22.  That beats the craft store canvas price by a lot!  I painted it in the same way I painted the piece of art in my last post.  This was such a large piece of art, though, that I added a stenciled design.  (I used my Silhouette to make the stencil.  I LOVE that machine!!!)  I also glazed the final piece to give it a more aged, toned down look.  That's when I realized I loved the nooks and crannies of the wood because the glaze stayed in them.  I sealed the final piece with two coats of polyacrylic.

   I think it turned out pretty good.  I took it to my dad's house for my sister to pick up, and he threatened to keep it for himself!  :)  I promised to make him another one.  My sister got it yesterday, and she LOVES it!  These days, most people have to be on a budget, so I'm so glad I could make her the large piece of art she wanted for under $25!!!  You can't beat that price.  ;)