Chalk Paint Nightstand Redo, Part 1

Happy Thursday, friends!  I've been super busy these last 2 weeks, but I haven't forgotten this little blog!  Today I'm going to start telling you about my latest furniture painting project, but before I get started I have to mention the wonderful time I had last weekend.  I and 13 other women had the privilege of attending Shaunna West's (of Perfectly Imperfect) first ever Annie Sloan Chalk Paint workshop at her house.  It was SO MUCH FUN!!  I was so delighted to meet Shaunna and to get to play around with the paint I've been reading so much about.  Shaunna's just as fun and sweet in person as she sounds on her blog, and her house is really stunning.  Her husband, Matt, helped with the workshop and even gave a few of us an impromptu tour of their lovely home.  They were both so welcoming and open with their home.  I can't say enough about the day; it was just so great.  If you're even slightly interested it would be well worth your time to sign up for one of her upcoming workshops.  I promise you'll love it!

As a result of all the chalk paint fun we had, I ended up going home with 2 quarts of that magical paint.  I chose French Linen, which is a lovely warm grey, and Pure White, which is, well, white.  Those 2 combine beautifully for a driftwood effect, so I thought I'd try that out on the cheapo bedside tables we have in our master bedroom.  We get these tables several years ago and slapped a quick coat of flat white latex on them.  Or rather, we did that after I utterly and completely failed to cover them in spray paint.  Imagine trying to paint a laminate table in Florida in July on the tiniest apartment balcony in the world.  Yeah, it wasn't pretty.  Nor were the resultant drips and bubbles in the spray paint.  Aaaaanyway, after we painted them white, we neglected to seal them.  At all.  BIG. MISTAKE.

The accumulated scratches (and dust bunnies) of about 6 years did nothing for the look of these beauties.

Looks a bit tired and sad, doesn't it?  Here's the look I'm going for:

To get that driftwood look that you see on my sample board, you simply paint a coat of grey, then a coat of white.  After they're had time to dry (which isn't that long with this paint, maybe 20 minutes), you just grab a damp rag and rub away the white until you achieve the look you want.  My mom asked me if that means the painted finish could get messed up super easily.  Well, if you don't seal it, that might be possible if you really scrubbed hard, but that's why I always plan to seal my work.  You don't have to on low traffic pieces, though.  It's really durable paint!

Well, I did all my painting and then distressed it with the rag and...I kinda hate it.  I definitely need to work on this finish.  Here are a couple little drummers showing you what I've done so far.

I can't stop thinking that table looks like a zebra.  It's so stripey!  I think I just pulled off too much white and did it in too definite a pattern.  It isn't natural looking enough.  What do you think?  Funnily enough, it looks better in these pictures than in person.  It's not horrible, I suppose, but I don't like it enough to keep it this way.  I'm planning to paint over this finish with another coat of grey and then just use sandpaper to lightly distress around the edges and a bit on the sides and top.  Hence the "Part 1" in the title of this post!  Hopefully I'll like round 2 better!  Thanks, Shaunna, for introducing me to this super fun paint :)  Wish me luck!