Baby Loves Her Some Barn Wood

The moral of this blog is new is not always better.  A couple of weeks ago, I made My Man take me to pick up some old barn wood a family was disposing of  for free!  He was annoyed, but I promised him we would give the wood a new life soon.

Fast forward to Tuesday evening …

Melanie was pretty tired of the burlap top and tan bottom of her Restoration Hardware coffee table. She called it “boring”.  While she didn’t want to get rid of it, she thought it was a prime candidate for a Fixer Upper.

She left the color choice up to me, but made sure I knew she didn’t like bright colors. After talking it over with my neighbor Lindsey, I was pretty set on painting it Barcelona Orange, an Annie Sloan Chalk Paint color. I was thinking the second one from the left (adding some Old White).

While planning the process I would use to up-cycle the coffee table, I remembered the barn wood!  I ran out to the garage and laid four pieces on the table. After it was trimmed, it would fit perfectly.  I couldn’t wait to get started.

Before I painted the table Old White, I took off the burlap cover on the top, along with what felt like one million tacks.  I labored around the table, taking them out one by one.

When done, I filled the tack holes with putty.  I then painted four different coats of Old White, adding a little warm water so it went on thin.  The key was to give the paint a number of layers so it distressed well.

Allowing the table to dry, it was time to call on the POWER SAW MASTER, my husband Nick! He loves using it!  We picked through the barn wood until we found four perfect boards. He measured and cut it.

After sanding the heck out of the sides and top, we couldn’t believe how pretty the wood turned out!  After admiring it for a second, I painted on a coat of clear semi-gloss Polyurethane.  It dried quickly in the sun.

Once the bottom of the coffee table was distressed, I clear waxed and buffed it.  Now it was go time! It was time to attach the four boards to the table top!

I am the POWER SCREWDRIVER MASTER so it was my time to shine.  Nick held the boards as I measured and drilled in the wood screws.  I admit it!  I messed up on one and we had to hand screw it back out and start over.  He thought it was funny, with me being a master and all.  We wear those blue gloves a lot to keep paint off our hands. It works, but I feel like my hands have lost 10 pounds after I take them off!

After the table was finished, I painted one more thin coat of Polyurethane.  We put it in the sun to dry.  It was that easy folks!  I’m pretty sure we are all in love!

P.S.  While I was working on this, I also worked on another project — a Restoration Hardware shelving unit.  Duck Egg and clear wax were selected to transform it.

I taped around the iron and painted on super thin coats of Duck Egg four times. I let it dry really well between each coach and then distressed it. I loved the way the wood popped after it was waxed and buffed. It was just gorgeous!