Coffee Table Make Over

Found this old coffee table while rummaging though our basement.. My husband wanted to clear out the junk store goodies he had been collecting for over the last 20 years.I thought with a little elbow grease, and paint we could turn this ugly duck into a beautiful swan.

The first thing we had to do was to  place the coffee table out side to air out.  Next came the sanding lots of elbow grease..

 I am drawn to the Shabby Sheik look so my thoughts were to paint the table an off white, and to crackle it first so the dark wood would show through it.. I decided I would paint a decorative design in the middle, and edges.

 I bought a jar of crackle finish from Lowe's. When you crackle a piece of furniture use a brush, the more crackle you apply to the brush the bigger the crackles will be.Its important to make sure you apply in one direction only.

The shiny part in the picture is where the crackle paint was applied.. Notice where the antique white paint was painted,  how  quickly the crackle  has begun appearing..  When applying the top coat, it's important to  brush only once. Do not go back over the paint, just brush once and go on.

I painted the back ground first, and framed it with black. I will go back and decorate the black frame with comma strokes after I finish the whole picture.

Then I centered the 2 folk art men.holding the huge grapes

I like to use acrylics paints, I had a problem being allergic to the oil paints.. 

The crackle showed through the painting which gave this a nice patina.

This is the up close look of the stroke work, which was done as a border.

Now this coffee table is once more presentable, I think I will use it in the living room