Nautical Hand Painted Side Table

Hey there friends! This week I had an itch to do some hand drawing. Besides painting and distressing furniture, I find that hand painting detailed things is ridiculously relaxing for me.  No not for you? hmmm well you can watch me haha!

A friend said to me “Now, Amy I have this table that I am getting rid of but I am not sure if you would want it”.  When I hear someone say that my pulse beats a little faster because I know it’s an “Amy” project. It usually means one of two things.  It’s ugly or it’s in terrible shape.  This piece was neither to me but I scarfed it up faster than the speed of light.  I mean it’s not the prettiest but it’s not the ugliest either.

It was a beast to move around. Small but mighty which is great in my book. I knew immediately I want to do a compass on this piece because it was so bulky that it needed a distraction on the top of it.

I started by drawing out my lines for the compass with a pencil. I have done a few of these compasses in the past. You can see a tutorial here to see how I drew out the compass.

I wasn’t quite sure what to do next after the compass was finished. So I taped some sections off and started painting some blues and whites here and there randomly. I used BB Froscch chalk paint powder mixed with samples paint colors from Lowes for the whole table including the compass and the great things about randomly painting in areas is that if I don’t like it, I can just paint right over it!!

I decided that the blue was a little too…baby blue. Like maybe it belonged in a sailors child’s room.  So I took a creamy white and wet brush and lightly went over everything to dum down the baby blue a little.

It still looks harsh but I knew that I was going to wax the whole thing with BB Frosch clear wax an then use some dark wax over that create a more subtle effect over the harsh lines of the paint.

Voila!!! Now we’re talking!!! After the wax cured (in about 15 minutes) I buffed it up with a clean cloth and called it a day! You can see the blues, whites and the dark wax all mesh well together:)