Don't Give Up Hope On Old Junk

by Jessica

A while back my grandparents gave me this hunk of junk. They know better than to throw things away when they have me around to fix them and refurbish them...or just create something entirely new with them like I do in my shop.
Anyway, this side table has been my Grandfathers night stand for as long as I can remember. It has been chewed up and spit out and was in horrible condition. The edges were all chipped and the particle board was showing and looked like cotton coming out in places. I am guessing it got wet from my Grandfathers breathing machine.
But I gladly took it back to my shop. Then I let it sit there for a while just pondering what I was going to do to it. I really don't like fake wood, but it was still salvageable so I stopped putting it off and got to work.

don t give up hope on old junk, chalk paint, painted furniture, repurposing upcycling

See....ugly, right!? Yikes this thing needed some help!

Since I am obsessed with the color mint, I decided to use mint chalk paint and give it a once over with a chip brush leaving it streaky and vintage looking. I love chalk paint for non wood projects, because you DO NOT have to sand anything before painting! It is a wonderful thing!

Then I gave it a quick sanding around the edges to make it look worn and aged. As if it wasn't already!

I was going to use chicken wire on the door, but I had an epic fail and had to toss the door out (you can see what happened on my blog).

So I grabbed the chicken wire and covered the back.

Chicken wire is a nightmare to work with, but it looks so stinking cute on things. I used a heavy duty staple gun and stapled on corner. Then pulled and stretched the wire as I stapled about every 3 inches. Then I used wire cutters and cut it off of the spool after it was fully attached.

Chicken wire comes in a roll so its very hard to get it to lay flat. I have found by cutting it after its attached has saved me a lot of headaches.

Then hammer the staples and the ends of the wires flat.