Faux Wood Grain Table

This is a picture of the original table. The wrought iron legs were originally white, been painted black, and the black paint was chipping off. The top, although hard to tell had some water damage.

The first think I did was take the table outside. I sanded the outside edges as they were rough and slivering. I used a sanding block from Dollar Tree.

Next, I started with a metal brush scraping at the wrought iron to remove the flaking paint. I then switched to a steel wool pad to scrape the rest of the flaking paint off.

It was really simple to do. After I was done scrubbing, I washed all the wrought iron off.

Here is a picture of the the table after all the scrubbing.

I purchased sample paint from Lowes. Their sample paint is very affordable. I bought the Valspar sample paint in the color Crucible for my base. There are some great things I learned about this paint sample - it's their Valspar Signature paint, you can pick any color in their swatch, it's a satin finish, & it has a primer built into it.

I brushed it onto the wrought iron with a sponge brush, and I used 2 coats to make sure I got the whole thing.

*I left a small amount of the wrought iron unpainted so that I could demonstrate it on an upcoming Hometalk Live DIY.

I had wiped down the table to make sure it was clear of debris. I had enough sample paint left that I could paint the top. The top was a veneer piece and would be very hard to remove. I lightly sanded the veneer top, wiped it off with a damp rag, and let it dry completely. Since the paint sample had a built in primer, I was all set. I painted on a first coat, let it dry, and then painted on a second coat and let that dry completely. I used a paint brush as I was okay if there were some lines. I will be creating a faux wood grain look and figured the lines might help with the effect.

Next comes the fun part - I will be doing the top of this table on my Hometalk Live show - but I had to practice before hand. I will show you how easy it is to do make the fake wood look using a faux wood grain tool. This is a regular piece of paper, and I have painted it with the Valspar paint sample in Crucible to simulate the top of the table.

To make the wood grain layer, I used Valspar Glaze & Valspar paint sample in the color Voyage. I mixed together 1 part paint to 4 parts glaze.

I used a brush to brush on the paint over the first layer. I was careful not to get it too thick. A nice thin layer and was okay with the brush lines as they'll add to the next step. The great thing is this doesn't have to be perfect, and I like that.

Next I used the edge of the wood grain tool to make the lines you can see here. You don't have to do this step, I was just trying to add more "wood grain" look to it.

First I used the edge of the wood grain tool (you can see it on the top of the picture here) and pulled it across the paint creating the lines you can see. This is really an optional step.

I pulled the bottom of this wood grain tool across the paper, one long row at a time. While pulling/dragging it across you rock the tool to give it different wood shapes.

Here was my first try using the tool rocking and dragging it across.

After each length, I used a paper towel to clean off the extra paint on the tool.

I continued to drag the tool rocking it back and forth creating a simulated one board at a time.

When I got all the way done - this is how it looked.

What happens if you don't like the way a wood grain turned out? What if you made a mistake? No problem! Just paint on a new layer of the glaze paint mixture and start over. You can see here how I painted over a previous row.

Here is when I re-did it. This technique is a lot of fun! I have not done a lot of furniture, and when I finished what I have so far - I'm really proud and so excited that I could do it. Again - if I can do it, so can you!

I'll be finishing the table on Hometalk's Live DIY I'll be posting the a picture of the finished table after I finish it on Hometalk's Facebook Live DIY - Tuesday. July 5th at 7pm EST.

Here is the completed table, and I love the way it turned out! I will let this dry and add a top coat to it to seal it.

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