Striped French Farmhouse Table

Zest it Up
by Zest it Up
7 Materials
$15
2 Hours
Medium
Hey there, it’s Chanda. Check out what an extravagant spending account of $5 gets when the neighbors have a garage sale. Come on….don’t tell me that you don’t see treasure here! So, what to do first? Should I top it with glass? Paint it cheery and bright? Mosaic? Hmmmmmm. Choices, choices, choices.


Ok, ready….set…..go! First step was to wipe off the many spider webs that had accumulated while living outside. A damp rag went a long way in spiffing this piece up a bit.


Next, I dealt with the rickety, wobbly legs. This table felt like it would collapse if you sneezed in its general direction. Man was I relieved to discover that it only needed tightening and not structural reconstruction! Yay!


In looking around at the mass of scrap wood that Sean (my hubby) and I had amassed, I decided to rescue it from the campfire pile and make a wood insert for my table. Better use, I think. Then my “hack” job began. I had seen a table that I loooooved. It incorporated multicolored slats of wood and the use of transfers. I was really excited to try it out!


Some of the wood scraps were already primed a nice white. I decided to stain some of the others a mahogany, and still others I painted blue. I started with a very pale shade, and then layered a more teal shade on top.


The white adds a nice contrast to the wood that I stained!


I love how it's all coming together!


It really started to look hot once I sanded. I loved seeing the two shades of blue mingle with the raw pine! Way cool.


I then distressed the white primed slats, too (the mahogany stained slats remained unscathed by the sander!).


Ok, are you feelin’ me on this one yet? Haha, my neighbor Bob said, “Oh, yer makin’ girlie furniture!” I love it! He is a fellow woodworker and furniture maker…super helpful and informative AND a total character! I guess my stuff IS girlie…but hey, I’m a girl! And it’s my prerogative. I needed more of the la vie de la francais for this farmhouse table…so I visited www.graphicsfairy-diy.com for some super special french text. Which I printed on parchment paper (not wax because I was concerned about my polyurethane sealer not adhering)


Plus d’importante! I used double stick tape to affix my parchment paper to regular computer paper (it won’t stick well, but it helps) and I had the curled edges of the parchment curl towards the paper. This totally helped in not jamming up my printer (did it once with the curled edges facing up and wow! Nightmare of a jam!) Once printed, it’s a matter of carefully placing and rubbing without smearing…totally doable! Thankfully I had no mistakes!




It turned out so amazingly lush!
Check it out in the soft morning light…


I think my decal adds some nice personal touch!


I love how easy this project was AND that it only cost $5 for the table frame and $9.99 for the polyurethane….everything else was just scraps! Talk about zesting things up….oh, and as far as the girlie thing goes…this table made my husband speechless…he absolutely loves it! Haha…guess Bob’s take isn’t universal (but of course I married a guy who happily watches chick flicks with me…as long as it’s balanced with shoot ‘em up movies, too)


And how about some cutie chairs to match??


Xo


Chanda
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Wood table
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Zest it Up
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  2 questions
  • Kathy Epperson Kathy Epperson on Nov 21, 2015
    Was it a coincidence you used the Saint Denis graphic? Beautiful by the way!
  • Fly Fly on Apr 07, 2019

    How does one do the rub-on image as you did. Are you using a laser printer? I have been wanting to do this, but I keep seeing it done so many different ways, but this looks like the simplest I have ever seen!

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  • Sandra L Warren Sandra L Warren on Jun 09, 2019

    I love this table!The colors are perfection! And BTW I know plenty of men who would love this!

  • Colleen Kennelly Colleen Kennelly on Jul 01, 2019

    Fantastic. I am loving this. I would like to do this on the dressers that got terribly scratched up in my move to North Carolina. I put "distressed wood contact paper" on to give the effect, but really not happy with it. This looks so much better. Light years better.

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