The Table

My Uncle Frank was quite a character. He was funny, loyal, genuine, liked the occasional sip of whiskey and most of all, he loved his nieces and nephews. He was once arrested for piracy on the high seas in an incident involving a boat, a dock, a case of beer and four 18 year old boys. As you can imagine, my grandfather was not happy but I bet the judge was secretly amused.  When he died, we were all quite sad and when it came time to clean out his quaint Cape Cod house — that my daughter later bought — it seemed appropriate that each of us would take something as a homage to him.  

I chose a couple of items...a cool argyle lamp from the 60's (that needs to be rewired), some vintage barware and a pretty Queen Anne coffee table, with its lovely curves and fold-down sides. I saw potential and thought about this project for a quite a while.  Should I change the legs? Should I sand the top, stain it and paint the rest a different color (my original thought)?  Should I simply just paint the whole darn thing?  I finally settled on paining the entire table, but decided to add something. 

A stencil. 

Then the quest for the perfect stencil began.  I had a blurry vision of what I wanted, so I scoured Pinterest to focus my idea.  I bought a few stencils that I did not use for this project but inspired another projects (more on those later). Finally, I channeled my love of bees and my obsession with the Royal Family that began with Lady Diana and chose a queen bee design from Stencil Stash in Wiltshire, UK.  It reminds me of one of my favorite sayings "pick yourself up and straighten your crown!"   The table had already been painted for a couple of weeks and was just sitting in my workroom (aka, my basement) waiting for some project closure. 

So here's the table following a sanding...

I am told gray is now a neutral color so I chose a rich, dark shade, Graphite Gray, from Kensington Clark, available at my neighborhood Ace Hardware.  

And here's the table following two coats of the Graphite Gray...

As I waited for the paint to dry completely I researched "how to stencil furniture" because I never stenciled furniture before.  I then switched from Google to Amazon.com to buy the required tools, painters tape, stencil paint and stencil dabbing sponges.  The technique involves two paper plates*, very little paint on the dabbing sponge and removing the stencil while the paint is still wet.  Eh, what?  I have gotten myself lost more than once by not following the suggested GPS route because it did not sound right so I decided to follow directions (since I DID, after all, have to google "how to stencil furniture"). 

And here's the table following the stenciling….

And after a coat of Minwax Polycrylic....

I am not entirely happy with the polycrylic coat, and, from now on, will stick to waxing to preserve my painted finishes.  It does have a kind of distressed look though.

Nonetheless, I love this restored table!  It's a reminder of a beloved uncle, a point of pride for me and a prompt to have a little fun.  Maybe not "get arrested for piracy on the high seas" fun, but a bit of frivolity is good for the soul.

*One plate for a bit of paint and one plate to dab some paint off before applying to the stencil.