Greek Glam Makeover

Virginia B
by Virginia B
3 Materials
$50
3 Hours
Medium

I was recently shopping for a new sofa at a local furniture store. Have you been to a furniture store lately? All those pretty wood pieces! Until you get close and they aren't really wood! If I'm going to pay a lot of money for a piece I want it to be real wood.

Thankfully, there are plenty of old, solid wood pieces to be found at yard sales, thrift stores, & estate sales. They might not be in the best shape, but with a little effort, they can be beautiful.

I recently acquired this piece.. solid wood & heavy!

I gave it a good cleaning with Dixie Belle's White Lightening. After using the White Lightening, I came back and wiped it down with just water to make sure no White Lightening residue was left behind.

I typically paint furniture, but for this piece I decided I wanted to stain it with No Pain Gel Stain. This stain is the consistency of pudding & goes on easily with no drips or mess.

It is oil based, so I wore gloves. I applied it with a lint free rag that I just dipped into the stain, and wiped on.

I chose the stain color, Espresso, not only because I love the dark, rich color, but also to help hide this dark stain on the top of the table.

There were a lot of water marks & other stains on the top of the table, but no need to sand... the dark color easily covered them.

I wanted more than just a stained piece of furniture, so I used the Greek Key stencil from Dixie Belle to add a fun touch to the front of the drawers.

Rather than use paint with the stencil, I used Dixie Belle's Gilding Wax. The metallic copper gave the table the perfect amount of glam that I wanted.

I applied the gilding wax over the stencil with a makeup sponge & then applied more of the wax to the detail around the drawers.

I added new knobs that have a touch of copper.


From grungy to glamorous...

Hmmm... where di that dark stain on top go?

This piece will live on much longer than those non wood pieces at the furniture store!

Resources for this project:
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Virginia B
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  3 questions
  • Ticia Ticia on Aug 09, 2021

    First off, where do you buy this product and how long did it take the gel stain to set and did you do more than 1 coat? Also, will it rub off on a fabric should you put a runner on top? Thanks in advance.

  • Lisa Judycki Lisa Judycki on Feb 14, 2022

    I have never worked with gilding wax, do you need to put a sealer on it?

  • Susan QC Susan QC on Aug 02, 2023

    So did you seal the whole piece with poly and then stencil with the gilding wax? I was thinking the wax might not want to adhere to the poly.

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