Simple French Side Table

This is a story about a Simple French Side Table. Here is the table I received from a friend. Mrs. Smith and I bought a few pieces from her, but this was one of those - "You can have that, or it will go in the dumpster."

Well, this is the latest picture I could find before painted. You see, I had to add quite a bit of wood filler to the plywood top as the layers had begun peeling and chipping away from each other.

As I have begun painting with CeCe Caldwell's paint, I have been trying out some different styles with the many colors I have to work with - examples for customers to The Smith Hotel. While in Seattle with Mrs. Smith, we stopped in a few shops that lent me some inspiration. One place we happened upon (actually Mrs. Smith sought it out) was Watson Kennedy. We actually got to meet Ted. He had some great pieces in the First & Spring Store. Another store we visited was Salt & Sea Vintage Home on Bainbridge Island. So from these two stores, I decide I needed a two tone piece that looked old and weathered. I didn't want to try it on a large piece since I wasn't sure how it would turn out - so why not a free small table - a simple table.

I chose a Seattle Mist and Alaskan Tundra Green. I felt they would go on light and I could do some distressing and throw some glaze into my wax to make it look older. But I did want to also keep the table simple, something you might find in a cottage on the outskirts of Paris.

So here it is after the paint - a mere 30 minutes to get both colors on. Wow - CeCe Caldwell's paint is very easy to apply and clean up is simple as well (rinse the brush with warm water). In trying some different things with a new paint, I have sanded prior to waxing and sanded after waxing. I have found both to be fairly easy with this paint and wax. Either way, I have found that sanding polishes the paint slightly, but gives it a great look wherever the brush stokes have remained. One thing that I will say is that if you sand after waxing, the sand paper gums up pretty quickly. Sanding prior to wax renders more "dust", but I can use the same piece of sandpaper on the whole piece of furniture. I am all about cheap - so I sanded this one prior to waxing.

Did I mention the CeCe Caldwell's wax smells like honey? Maybe some tea with those crumpets?

After waxing, I used some Valspar Antiquing Glaze on the wax before it cured. I spread it out as thin as possible - trying to get an aged look, but not too dark. Here is what we came out with.

I added a simple brass ball pull for the hardware. There is no drawer, but the pull adds a little something that finishes the piece. Here are some other shots (thank you sun for coming out for one day).

So there you have it. Please tell me what you think - do you like the look? Is it simple? Would you put it in your French countryside cottage?

Until next time....

Mr. Smith

Linking to:
Primitive and Proper
Domestically Speaking