Stenciled Side Table for Sarah

I have this friend.  Chances are if you know her, she's your friend too.  I don't think it's possible for her to have enemies.  She's awesome.  What kind of friend would ask me to help her paint a little table and in return she'll do landscaping for me?  Yup, Sarah came one RAINY day with the table.... along with work boots, gloves, and shovels to help me rip out sod.  Heaven's no, girl.  Let's wait for a nice day!  I had to convince her that we'd just hold off on the landscaping.   She was all gung ho and ready to go!  Did I mention she's awesome?

So let's take a look at her little table.  She got this from her late grandmother and wanted to have it as a keepsake.  She really didn't have any idea of how it should look, except that she liked the idea of a shabby, distressed look. 

I remembered to snap a "before" shot after I had already removed the handles.

 We mixed up some chalk paint - plaster of paris mixed into our white paint - and set to work.  It dried within minutes and we were able to distress it around the edges right away with sandpaper.

We decided a stencil covering the top would look super swell.  As always, I have a little "helper".  Sarah and I took turns doing the all-time-consuming job of stenciling one little area at a time.  

While Sarah took her turn, I taped off a rectangle on the bottom shelf and painted it green to match the drawers.

Funny thing is, we originally painted the handles green since we thought they'd add a fun pop of color on white drawers.  But then I thought maybe the pop needed to be a little stronger so we'd do it on the drawers.  I'm SO glad because it made the handles look so super swooper spectactular with green peaking out from the black we decided to paint over top.  I think I'll do all drawer pulls with this technique from now on!  

Finished product - I hope Sarah and her family enjoy this heirloom for many years to come!!!!  Thanks for trusting me enough to let me help you.  It was the most fun I can recall ever painting an end table!!

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