After a year in our new smaller home, I have yet to complete the master suite -until now. We took two closets with bi-fold spoors and cut the middle wall out to make a nook for the bed. The room was simply too small to accommodate our furniture. I wanted a symmetrical look that would calm the eye. In small spaces, I prefer symmetry- it lets your eye rest.
The only thing missing was side tables. Craig's list to the rescue! I found two matching ugly tables for the bargain price of $60. I love ugly. Its always cheaper! And I can fix ugly.
Here is one before (brown) and one after (cream)
When I originally bought them, they had a solid bottom, but the veneer was badley damaged so i removed the bottoms and added legs that I bought from Van Dykes Restorers. When you look for a piece of furniture to paint, always look for interesting moulding and carving. In this case - the heavily carved doors sold me on these sad little tables. I proceeded to paint the doors using a mix of Annie Sloan Chalk paint colors: Old White, French linen, and Country Gray.
I used the darker French Linen in the flat areas of the doors and intermittently added some of the Country Gray. When that was dry, I dry brushed Old White on the highest parts to highlight the carving. Finally I sanded some of the paint all the way down to the wood, for interest.
The hardware wasn't horrible, it just needed some love. I used a gilders wax that I found in Paris, but you can achieve the same effect using Silver Rub'N Buff from Michaels. The metallic wax is rubbed on and then buffed off with a soft cloth. It accentuates the design quite nicely.
Now the doors are ready to go back onto the tables. I chose to make the body of the tables one color- Old White. I felt it would make the doors stand out more. (since they are the eye candy on the piece)
Finally I waxed the whole piece and placed them in the Master Suite- Voila!
And THAT is how you put the
"sweet" in Master Suite!!
