New Green Finish For An Old Find

When Alan was living in St. Thomas (Ontario, not Virgin Islands) before I moved down here last year, he acquired quite a bit of odd pieces of furniture from the local thrift shop. I must admit that a lot of it got re-donated when we moved houses. But I did keep a couple of pieces knowing that they would come in handy one day. This old demi-lune table was one of those pieces that we kept. It sits in our upstairs hallway. But it didn't look right with it's chippy white paint and lavender top. So it was time for a re-do.

First, I primed it with Acrylic Lock primer because it was covered in oil-based paint. Okay, actually first I attempted to paint it with the top colour, but since it kept sliding off I knew that I had to prime it to make it adhere to the oil-based paint.  Then I sanded it between coats.

I wanted it to look like it had been found inside some one's attic, so I took a lot of the paint off the top letting the primer show through. I also wiped it down with some silver craft paint and dry rubbed that off.

You can just see the silver paint peeking through the edges. I wanted it to look like it originally had silver gilt trim on it, but that it had faded and chipped over time.

With a little sanding with the mouse sander, I was able to get down to the bare wood in places. This gives it a more antiqued look I think.

Then I dry brushed the whole thing with the green paint again to soften the edges a little and waxed it to protect it. Although I'm not sure what I'm protecting it from as this table is not something that gets things dropped on or used - it's really more decorative.

Just for reference, the colour used is Benjamin Moore's Grasshopper Wings in a semi-gloss finish. It matches perfectly with a small stripe in the wallpaper in that area.