Adirondack Tables tour the French Countryside

Back in 2002, when we first moved into our house, we bought an unfinished coffee table with matching end tables from a local furniture store.

They were a simple Adirondack country design and over the years I stained them a few times.

We used the coffee table to hold up the TV.

The end tables were used in whatever space I needed a filler object.

They pretty much served their purpose but I was tired of them.

Over the years, they got scratched up and were covered in stains from watering plants and sweating glasses left by... uhh... children.

Yea, children. We'll go with that.

 

Enter paint.

Not just any paint.

CeCe Caldwell's Natural Chalk + Clay Paint in Vintage White.

Unfortunately, I've never tried applying paint over an unsealed stained surface before and was sadly unaware of the issues involved.
(See update at the end of this post. It will save you from the same anxiety filled issues that I had with these pieces).

The stain bleeds through the paint.

I applied 4 coats of the white but couldn't get the stain to stop coming through.

Every piece looked like crap so for over a month, I left them sitting in a pile waiting until I could figure out what I wanted to do with them.

Enter more paint. 

I finally decided that it must be the light color of the white paint that was the problem so I went with dark gray.

No more stain bleeding through.

Happy now?

Yes I am.

 

I added 2 coats of CeCe Caldwell's Clear Wax to protect the paint.

 

A few new knobs from Hobby Lobby (75% off..oh yea!).

 

All French-ified.

 

 

 

 

I'm just sorry that I didn't have more time to take better pictures of this.

I was in a hurry to take it to Newport Marketplace where it sold in just a few days of leaving it there.

***Update*** Just the other day, I read a post from Kristy at 4 the Love of Wood (excellent blog to follow by the way). She did this tutorial on how to deal with color bleeding through paint. You can bet I'm going to remember this the next time I'm dealing with previously stained furniture.