After I refinished my table and got my industrial chairs I needed something on the table to tie the whole “Industrial Farmhouse” look I was going for. I planed on just constructing a planked, wood top but then I found another great, heavy-duty farmhouse table for dirt cheap at a yard sale. Now, my thoughts are to sell the original table with the matching chairs and just make my own table from the newly found, yard sale table. Anyways, I digress…

So, in the meantime, I need something to A. Tie the styles together and B. Create some height (we had a counter-height table before this one, so even though its standard height, it looks too short to us now).

Using some leftover 1/2 in plywood from another project and my table saw, I came up with this.

To make the stencil for the numbers, I simply printed the numbers on some cardstock and cut them out with an exacto knife. To get the cardstock to stay in place while pouncing the paint on, I lightly sprayed some spray adhesive on the back of each stencil and made sure to really rub the stencil into place. Worked great. No bleeds.

To make it look authentically old, I distressed the wood a bit. I planed the corners to make them look worn, and just went to town banging my hammer all over the thing.

For the finish, I started by staining the whole piece Antique Walnut and let it dry overnight. Next, I brushed on a layer of Antique Crackle from the Old Fashioned Milk Paint company. I didn’t want uniform crackling  so I brushed it sparsely in some areas, heavily in others (the heavier you apply the crackle medium, the larger the cracks). I also rubbed a little Vaseline around the handle holes and on the corners. Next, the whole thing got brushed with one coat of a creamy white “oops” latex paint. While it was still wet, I used a rag to wipe off some of the edges. I think distressed the paint much more natural-looking than using sand paper.

I braided 6 strands of jute together to make handles.

(LOVE the natural- looking chippyness)

I decided it needed some hardware to look more tough, so I grabbed some small L brackets. The color choices at Home Depot were brass, shiny zinc, and black. I wanted more of an iron color, so I bought the zinc ones and got creative layering bronze spray paint and black, sprayable window tint. I love the way they turned out! I will be using this technique again.

In each section, I placed a half-gallon mason jar and some faux grass. I had originally planned on dying my jars light blue, but then liked the lightness the clear glass gave. We’ll see, maybe I’ll end up dying them anyways.

Here’s how it looks, in place with my new table and chairs. What do you think? I think it looks old and authentic. It’s just what I wanted!

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