My husband thought this table was ugly and didn't want me to keep it for ourselves. However, after I turned it into a beautiful swan, he wondered why we were selling it!
I painted the top with my own recipe for chalk paint in a matte black. I did the same with the grey on the bottom, by mixing just a little black paint into pure white. I even painted the inside of the drawers with the black.
The entire piece was then buffed with Annie Sloan's clear wax. Note that your black can look a little blotchy even after two coats, but I feel it's part of the character created by chalk paint. (Add your graphic below before applying wax). I then rubbed on a coat of dark wax (not heavy) over the grey. Since this particular piece of furniture was smooth before paint, there was not much for detail to rub the dark wax into. Still I thought it looked fantastic with the added colour of the dark wax.
The best part of this project was adding the graphic. You will find this lovely image on The Graphics Fairy. I love this website so much, I bought the premium membership. However, there are over 4,000 free images to download! The image was actually screen printed with a thick white paint; mostly white that was mixed with the tiniest bit of black to get the perfect grey. I am so excited that the same ink you screen print fabric with, can work just as well on wood. I let the ink completely dry and then put another layer of wax over top to seal.
