Becoming Vera Wang: The Table

First, I have to thank you for commenting on that last post.  After I hit publish I was so afraid that I would stand alone in my confessions, much like the dream where you go to school naked so thank you for saving me from that.  I LOVED reminiscing with you guys!


But now that I have my photos uploaded, let me show you my sewing room!  Starting with the (grrrrr) curtains...


I took Julia's advice and screwed in another eye in the center of the two screws on the right side of the cornice.  It only took a few seconds and I just sat the wire on top of the screw - there was no way I was going to tempt fate and unwrap the wire and try to thread it through the eye.  Droopiness solved!

Nice and straight

But of course it couldn't be that easy on the left side!  For the life of me, I have no idea what the deal is with the left side but I could not get a screw in no matter how hard I tried.  I was going to take Diva's suggestion and put a push pin on the other side but of course we have no push pins in the house.  That reminds me, I need to make a trip to the office supply closet before I leave work today.  I MEAN, I need to stop by Office Max and BUY a box of push pins. 

Do you see this?  

It's mocking me, taunting me, making me sweat and curse!

It's called 'leaving well enough alone' for a reason.

However, I will not be defeated by that dumb cornice.  I will find a way to get a screw in that side. After all, Drew got a hook in there once, surely he can do it again right?  Right?!  

At any rate, the rest of my room transformation went amazingly well and I'm so very pleased with how it all came out - my goal is to sew something this weekend!  So let's start with my table, because that's what I'm most excited about!  I found it on craigslist for $30 and after confirming the measurements would work in the room, I drove out to Plano to pick it up.  

Regular country-looking farm table

Personalized by the little kid of the house

Inspected by the dog of this house

Goo-Gone will not only remove stickers, 

it will remove paint and possibly your skin so be careful!

I was going to use my standby, Valspar's Pale Bloom so I wouldn't have to spend money on paint but when I opened the can, I knew there wouldn't be enough for the table.  Thankfully, we had lots of other paint on hand so I got busy opening the cans and brainstorming.

I'm the one who uses all the paint, so why is it all on the top shelf?

Better access for the short chick.

In opening and rearranging, I found a similar paint color that turned out to be the color of the walls in the sunroom (as best as I can tell.)  Figuring that would work out nicely, I dumped the rest of my Pale Bloom in my bucket, mixed it with the new color (Sherwin Williams custom - the label was too faded to tell the name), and hoped for the best!

What would you call this?  Creamy-ish? Almond-milk-y?

Mixed with the rest of my Pale Bloom

This little spout is the coolest!  

99 cents and it snaps onto a pint or a quart 

and catches spills! 

The rest is pretty much the same as any other furniture painting.  Sand, prime, paint, poly.  I did all that and was very pleased with how my table came out!  However, it sat in the garage for a couple of weeks because I wanted to experiment with painting a design on the top and couldn't decide on one.  I wanted to do a subtle stencil like Kristin but I didn't trust my free-handing skills. Centsational Girl made her own stencil but that was far too much effort for me.

It's just high-gloss paint over latex in the same color

It's nice and subtle and I love that

I finally settled on stripes - they're super easy and taping off the table took me about five minutes and that's after I figured out that if you work from the outside in, your lines will be straighter.

I didn't use a measure or level because I was too impatient.

I just eyeballed, taped, pulled up the tape because it was crooked

and taped again. 

Applying the glaze as the sun started to set.
It's Valspar's Brushed Pearl and it's in a blue and bronze can.

Finished.  Whenever using tape, take it off the second you're done painting.

If you let it dry, your paint stripes will come off with it and the edges will be uneven.

I threw some glaze on the knobs of the legs to bring it all together

In her new home in the sunroom!

I know it looks like the stripe doesn't go to the edge of the table, but I promise it does.

From some angles you can see the glaze very clearly

All ready for me to create!

Can I tell you how sad I am that my sewing machine has a black power cord?

Next up:  how I lost my mind at Target.