I've had this little vintage table for awhile...I bought it from a gal who sold chalk painted furniture out of an old barn on her property in FL.

I was brand new to the whole concept of chalk paint and needed a piece of chalk-painted furniture that I could see and touch to know what I was dealing with before I started doing it myself :)


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I paid $50 for this little table. To be honest, I've never really liked the color. It's kind of a dingy white and personally I think the distressing is a bit overboard. I know some people like it over the top...but I like to see the original stain...not have it taken down to bare wood (it doesn't look that bad in the above picture; the sunshine was generous!)

Since I've started painting and distressing furniture myself, I know that can happen when you distress with a palm sander*, rather than by hand with a sanding sponge*. It may be quicker with the sander, but I don't like the look as much.

Regardless, I bought it. I loved the actual table and I knew that someday, I could change the whole personality of this table.

When I brought it home, I noticed something was 'off' with it. It sat crooked. I thought maybe it was missing the little pad on the bottom of one of its feet, but they were all accounted for. So I pulled in the expert aka Mr. DIY...to have a look. Turns out one of the legs had been broken and badly repaired, causing it to tilt off-kilter.

Easy fix? Well, not by me!  Mr. DIY had to take that leg apart again and re-glue it properly. Of course this involved clamps and belts and jimmy things to hold it while it was drying. All I can say is...good thing I married someone handy :)

It was finally time to give this table some love!!

I started by painting it with homemade chalk paint in a custom aqua color. I liked it, but realized I've been painting everything either blue or duck egg or this shade. Time to change it up a bit. So I went back over it with a creamy cottage white and just dry brushed it on, letting some of the base coat show through. Then I gave it a good sanding * (by hand) which helped to blend the two coats together even more.



Now for the fun part. I knew I wanted to do a clock graphic on both surfaces. I found this great vintage Roman numeral clock face on The Graphics Fairy and printed it out to the size I needed using Block Posters. They allow you to print your graphic to any size (you select how many sheets of paper you will need). I printed it out in two sizes because I was planning to use it for both the top and the bottom tier. Did you catch the 'oddity' of this clock face? The '4' is IIII instead of IV. At first I thought I transferred it wrong, but when I looked at the original, that's what it showed!

I painted the clock face on the top tier using the same transfer method that I used on my painted tray (although that one was 'painted' using a Sharpie, the transfer method is the same), and decided to paint a different clock face on the bottom tier of the table.

I used foam stamps* and the same burnt umber paint* to be consistent and stamped my more modern clock face on. I kept this one more simple with no seconds or clock hands. I made sure that I stamped the numbers in the same positions as the 'clock' above.


Once dry, I gave both surfaces a light sanding* to remove the sharpness of the lines and add some distressing. I followed this up with two coats of clear wax* and buffed it with a soft rag to bring out a soft sheen..

I think my double-tier table has a little more personality now, wouldn't you say? I love how you can see all the layers of paint...yet it has a smooth finish and is ready for a drink or two :)

I'd love to know what you think of my clock-inspired table transformation! Have you painted a clock onto anything?


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