Reclaiming Natural Beauty and Why I Didn’t Paint It

2 Materials
$30
4 Days
Medium

Why did I choose to reclaim this natural beauty instead of painting it? Because sometimes you see a beautiful piece and you have plans to accent it with paint but when you try something different than your usual. You like it even more. You see that reclaiming natural beauty makes it shine.

Before: Over head Picture

Before: Picture of the legs


Step 1: Sand it

Just stating the obvious here but she was in rough shape. Here is what I did and this is horrible to write, but I don’t remember everything. So much has happened personally. My siding came undone during a storm and birds were getting into my attic and taking insulation and the dog was just being bad and my vehicle decided to have an engine issue. These are my three things!!! I don’t remember if I did stripper to the top and sides. I might have, I read a comment on my Facebook post, but I’m still not sure. What I do remember is that the finish and stain sanded off extremely easily. I sanded and sanded one Saturday afternoon and was just amazed

First Day of Sanding

First Day of Sanding Legs, notice the dog chew :)

I hope by seeing what she looked like you agree, reclaiming natural beauty was the thing to do.

Step 2: Inspiration

Here are some of the things I found on Pinterest and except for what was saved I have no clue who they belonged to. I’m sorry about that, I love Pinterest, but sometimes when I look I just take a snapshot.

I asked on social media what should I do to this table: one neighbor said to stain it cherry with all the dark under. Other options were to paint it black and let the wood shine through. I had thought about doing it like the  6 legged table I did last year in  Seaside by Fusion Mineral Paint.

Step 3: Stain it

Well, you know what I ended up doing? I did a reclaiming natural beauty 🙂 I used Cappuccino in Fusion Mineral Paint Stain and Finishing Oil and guys… I really love it. I followed their instruction and applied the stain as directed, then wiped it off after a couple of minutes and It looks like I feel it looked like when it was made. I added felt pads to the bottom so as not to scuff the floor.

What do you think? Would you do it different? How do you find your inspiration? Houzz? Pinterest? Let me know.

After: Picture from the top

After: Picture of the legs

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Lori O'Farrill
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  • Sally H. Sally H. on Apr 24, 2022

    I have a table nearly identical. I feel inspired to do this. Quite frankly, I am tired of the farmhouse distressed look. In fact, I never like it. Not to say that a paint/stain combo isn’t beautiful. Why would I deliberately make furniture look distressed? Thanks for your tutorial. Looks lovely.

  • Starkeeper Starkeeper on Apr 24, 2022

    I loved the way it looked after just being sanded. I think if my table looked like that after sanding, I would leave it that way, and perhaps

    put a wax finish on it in a clear coat. Your table looks great for matching your furniture style. BRAVO!


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