There are some projects that when you begin them you predict they will take a fair amount of time to complete. Others you imagine will come together in a snap, and by the time you're finally done you realize you sorely underestimated the scope of the project. That's what happened to me this week. What should have been a no-brainer, quick and easy project, ended up becoming much more.
The project began with a few stops at local thrift stores. I wanted to pick up (for cheap) a small table, rickity wooden chair, plant stand or crate that I could refinish and place pumpkins on by our front door as an outside decoration. Nothing fancy was needed. I didn't want to spend more than two cents. I just needed something -- anything really -- to elevate the pumpkins a bit. I finally found a small wicker stool/table that was spray painted a very stark white. Not the color I wanted, but I can unleash a can of spray paint with the best of 'em, so I carted the stool to the cashier. I forgot to take a before photo, but below is a photo of a similar stool to the all-white stool I bought...
I brought it home and spray painted it a warm brown color. By the time I was done it looked like this...
Hmmmm .... not exactly what I had in mind. As much as I love chocolate, I prefer it when my furniture doesn't look like it's been dunked in a rolling vat of melted chocolate and left out to dry. That's the thing about spray paint, it gives surfaces such a one-dimensional, plastic look. I immediately knew my chocolatey wicker would need a going over with a black glaze. I lightly painted some black tinted glaze all over the surface of the stool.
(FYI: You can buy a clear can of glaze in any hardware store, pour what you need for your project into another container and then tint the glaze with any color of acrylic craft paint (like the one below) of your choice. For this project I tinted my clear glaze with a squirt of black acrylic craft paint.)
Usually when I glaze an object I wipe off the excess glaze within a few minutes. I didn't do that with this project, because I wanted the black glaze to become a major part of the color of the stool. This is how it looked when the glaze dried...
No more milk chocolate! The wicker is much more natural looking now with different striations of color...
It also looks less plastic and more naturally "worn" in spots because of the variances in color. Tomorrow I'll show how it looks in all of its decorated pumkiny goodness.
Linked to:
Catch as Catch Can @ My Repurposed Life
Frugal Friday @ The Shabby Nest
Frugalicious Friday @ Finding Fabulous
