No Sanding, No Staining, Just Chalk Paint

   I have this old end table that I moved into my bedroom next to the recliner.  I love the table, I bought it new in 1991, it's heavy and it has a huge drawer, but it needed to be refinished and I wasn't looking forward to doing all that sanding and staining.

   I found some tutorials on how to use chalk paint and I was sold.  I didn't have to break out the sand paper, I just needed some time, a cool color of paint, a wax, a couple of brushes and a couple of cotton rags.  I also updated the brass drawer pulls with silver rub which was a nice plus because I had never seen silver rub before and I love it.

   I did some research and I found out you can spend a lot on chalk paint.  I did not want to buy a lot of this paint because I don't have any other paint projects other than this one table.  I ended up getting an 8 oz. bottle of Folk Art chalk paint at JoAnn's for $7.99 in the color of Spanish Moss.  There was plenty of paint in that small bottle to do two coats on this end table and I still have some left.  One thing I would say is that I used a sponge brush to apply this and I think I would have done better with a bristle brush.

    The wax I bought for this project was liquid because that was all the store had, but I originally saw a paste wax in the tutorial and I think I would have liked to use the paste better.  The wax I bought was made by Folk Art and it was labeled clear wax.  The wax went on with a brush, you let it dry and then you buff it up.   I bought 8 oz. of liquid wax  for $7.99 and I have lots of wax left over.  I bought the silver rub on Amazon and a small tube (.5 oz) was $6.21 with free shipping.

      This was a super fun project and for less than $25.00 I have a pretty table in my bedroom.

Quick Project: Water Bottle Carrier

   This water bottle carrier will come in extra handy when I'm out and about.  I found this tutorial here.  Thank you Pink Chalk Studio.  This holds a 16.9 fl. oz. bottle of water.  That's a pretty standard size around here.

    The tutorial was really easy to follow and from fabric cutting to finish took about 2 1/2 hours.

      I used some pretty Laurel Burch cat fabric I had in my stash and I also had the Insul-Brite already as well.  I used the same fabric for both the lining and the outside to save me time.

     I did change up the strap.  I made my strap from fabric strips because I didn't have any twill tape or pretty ribbon like the blogger used.  To make my strap I cut two wof pieces 2 1/2" wide and sewed them together to make a long piece about 80" long.  I ironed the strip in half lenghthwise, then folded the long edges to the crease in the middle, then I folded it again making it about 3/4" wide.  I ironed it down, then I sewed it 3/8" from the edge.  I trimmed the length to about 58", then attached it just like she attached her ribbon strap.  It's very comfortable.