HOW TO: Repair veneer / White Wash finish

This is by far one of my best pieces to date. I bought this poor beat up beauty on Craigslist for my kitchen.  It needed a lot of work, so if any of you have pieces out there like this... pay attention!!

As you can see, the veneer in the piece was lifting... way worse then you can even see. So I started by peeling back everything was lifting and added wood filler.

The instructions on the packaging are pretty self explanatory. But I did it in multiple coats so I could get a smoother finish. I also used very fine sand paper to avoid scratching the original veneer.

Then I painted the entire piece in homemade chalk paint. I chose "Mariner" by Martha Stewart. 

I then added a lighter blue to the details. I knew I wasn't done yet... but as you can see... This piece in is my kitchen, so it had to remain "functional" as long as possible. So I added the knobs on it, and went to bed ;) 

I decided I wanted to white-wash the piece so I watered down some homemade chalk paint. I added it to the side first to check the consistency. I ended up added about 1 1/2 cups of water. As you can see, I noticed that if I applied to much pressure, I started to remove the bottom layers of paint. No fear... I kind of embraced it and It is one of the things I love most about this piece. 

If you haven't attempted white-washing... it is simple... apply the watered down paint as shown below

Wipe off immediately...

Once the white washing was complete, I popped off the top. Because, lets face it... it was ugly. Rather then spending time on trying to recover it, I started from scratch.

I then stained it in my always favorite, Jacobean by MinWax. 

And VOILA! She is done.

Look closely... you can still see where I repaired the veneer... but thats okay. It's character.

HOW TO: Refinishing a dining room table

For Mother's day, I decided I would refinish my mom's boring dining room table! She bought this because it was functional when they moved to Virginia. There stuff was lost by the moving company for over a month.. so she just want stuff they could use, and of course... it never left.

Here is a picture of the chairs... to give you an idea. Nothing special, or notable about the set.

If you have ever considered doing a table, I highly suggest you purchase an electric sander. After watching me try to sand for two hours with no success, my Husband decided this would be a good mothers day gift for me. Thanks babe! 

Luckily, I only needed to sand the top! 

I used Minwax Jacobean stain on the top. 

Always been a favorite of mine. 

I started painting the piece using a Home Depot "Pro" grade brush. And I finally learned something... the brush you use really does matter. And I can't stress enough how much I love my "vintage effects" brush from Woodster. I had to clean my brush and use it wet just to take a picture to prove my point. 

First coat with Home Depot "Pro" brush 

EWW! I would be painting forever. 

Here is my first coat with the Woodster Vintage Effects brush.. which by the way is CHEAPER. 

Thats more like it. Oh! and in case you were wondering, I chose the color "Irish Dew" 

So... after painting... I used a satin poly on the top, and waxed the rest. Waxing chairs sucks. I had hand cramps for a week ): 

But the result was well worth it!