My friend Barb always finds the greatest “smalls” for me.  She picked up this little table at a sale somewhere for $12!  That orangish stain though… 🤢  Sometimes when I see a piece of furniture I know right away what I want to do with it and other times, like with this one, I have to look for ideas that inspire me.  At first, I thought maybe it should be a kid’s table but I didn’t come across any ideas that excited me so I just started looking for paint colors or finishes that looked interesting.  It wasn’t until I came across a cute little bee stencil that I decided what I was going to do with Miss B.

I really wanted a primitive, chippy look on this piece but I definitely didn’t want that hideous orange stain peeking through!  I knew I would have to cover that with primer so it wouldn’t bleed through to my chalk paint.  So the question is; how do I get that worn look without exposing the orange stain beneath?  I hoped I could achieve that look with paint.  How do you think it turned out?

I started with a light sanding just to rough up the slick “orange” surface, followed by two coats of grey primer, lightly sanding between each coat.  I chose a light green base coat by Waverly called Celery; it’s that perfect vintage green color.  After the second coat dried I was ready to start the “faux chipping”.

I used another Waverly paint in Truffle and rather than apply it with a paintbrush, I used a piece of wood.  I just dabbed the chunk of wood in the Truffle paint and dragged it along the edges of the table legs and the top, anywhere I thought it would naturally get wear and tear.  The flat surface of the woodblock is perfect for hitting just the high surfaces of the table and gives the look of chipped paint.

Normally truffles and celery wouldn’t sound good together but in this case, it was the perfect combo!  The two colors together kept reminding me of those Fannie May candies called Mint Meltaways with the dark chocolate center and the minty green coating!  (I may have had to take a break from painting once or twice to have some chocolate) 😋

I stenciled a bee on the edge of each leaf of the table in a light grey color (and probably had some more chocolate).  I lightly sanded the bee to make it look worn and faded.  I sealed it all with a clear matte topcoat.

She didn’t turn out quite as chippy looking as that old window frame in the image above but I think she was a perfect candidate for the faux chippy-paint look.  Have you ever tried this technique?  Let me know how you think Miss B turned out!

Whew!  I was glad to get Miss B out of my house and off to my booth at Country Fair Mall so someone else could gain a few pounds just looking at her mint-chocolateyness!  She must have looked just as delicious to someone else because she sold within a few days after I took her to Country Fair!

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