How to Distress A Table, No Sanding Required!

Hey everyone! Introducing my next new contributor, Ruthie! Check out her awesome post on How to Distress A Table, No Sanding Required! 

Hey everyone!  I’m so excited to be one of Amanda’s new contributors.  I want to start by introducing myself, my name is Ruthie and I blog over at Refashionably Late.  I focus mainly on DIY and Home Decor but I sprinkle in a little of my musical life.  I can’t wait to show you a few of my projects while contributing here at Old House to New Home.

Today I’m going to share with you a project I made kind of by mistake and I LOVE IT!  I’ve had this old end table since college.  One of my college roommates was moving out and no longer wanted it.  I said I would keep it as I was moving into my own place and needed furniture.

This is probably where my life as a DIYer began because I went to the store and bought some black spray paint and gave the table new life!  I wish I had what it looked like originally but here is a picture of how it has looked for almost 7 years.  It didn’t look terrible but I needed a change!  Plus aren’t the lines of the table amazing?!

I have been in love with the color Cliveden Pasture by Valspar for quite some time.  I thought this end table would look great in that color and it would help give my living room an extra added pop of color.  Since it is such a bold color I wanted to make it look distressed.  My original plan was to paint it completely and then use a stain to distress it.  I had an even better and easier AND faster idea by just giving it a distressed look by not painting it perfectly.  The table is already black so all it needed was a little slopped on paint, but in a nice, clean slopped on kind of way.

I made sure when painting to paint with straight lines.  I also did more coverage in some areas than others. In the pictures below you can see the technique I used when painting the table.  I used a brush to show strokes, which I love!  There really was no rhyme or reason to my strokes except to make them semi-straight. 🙂

Aren’t simple projects the best?!  I love how simple this project was and if you want to achieve the same look all you have to do is start by painting your piece of furniture black then go over it with your choice of bold color!  Simple!  Thanks again to Amanda for having me today and if you want to see more of projects please head on over to my blog and give it a look!  You can also follow me along on my social media accounts:

Have a great week and I’ll see you next month!