French Grain Sack Side Tables

Happy hump day y'all.  That just reminded me, I was born and raised in California but I have always felt like a Southern Bell.  My Mom is from Oklahoma so maybe that is where I get it.  I have been told I have a slight drawl.  Anyway, I was at the post office today and a homeless man said, "good afternoon".  I responded, "well good afternoon to you too".  His response surprised me.  He said, "oh my, you are a Southern Bell".  I told him, "so I have been told".  It just made me giggle that a 5 second interaction was enough for this down on his luck gentlemen to make a small assessment of me.  Kinda funny.

The point of this post is not my "Southern Bellness".  It is to share my latest project.  Do not get overwhelmed.  I tried a couple of techniques I have been wanting to try all in one project.  So I don't want you to think that this is too complicated.  If you just try one thing in this project, great.  If you try them all, well you go girl.

About a year ago I bought two end tables.  Yes, I said a year ago.  They had a cararra marble inset that I fell in love with.  I use them a lot for staging pictures for posts.  I also like to use them to serve a variety of cheeses when I host parties cause I am fancy like that.

See how pretty everything looks against the marble?  Anyway,  I didn't want to just toss the tables.  But what do I do with two tables that basically have no top?

First, paint them.

Oh my those are white, really white.  But, still what should we do for the insert?  For starters I had wood cut to size.

One of the techniques I tried was transferring french typography onto fabric creating a french grain sack look. The other was to Mod Podge fabric so that it was water proof.  So here we go.

First of all, I got my french typography image from The Graphics Fairy.  You have to go to this site.  First of all, she has amazing french typography and images.  Second, she goes into great detail about how to achieve different transferring methods.  Whether it be fabric or wood etc.,  she outlines the best way to achieve successful results.

I chose this image.  She gives you the option to print an image in reverse.  This is what you need if you are going to transfer an image.  Per her suggestion, I ordered Lesley Riley's Tap Transfer Artist Paper.  I found it on Amazon.  I printed my image on the paper according to the directions.  Then I transferred it to my fabric.  It was incredibly easy and efficient.  I am so using this product again. 

You can kinda see where the clear part of the transfer is.  I wasn't to worried about it.  I figured when I added my Mod Podge that it would disappear and I was right.  

I then taped off stripes to create my grain sack look.  I brushed on black paint with a sponge brush, making sure that there was not too much paint on my brush.  You want your stripes to look faded and aged.  After the paint had dried I set the paint and transfer with an iron.  I put a piece of wax paper between the project and iron so nothing would stick to the iron.  I then washed the fabric on the gentle cycle.  I wanted it to not look too perfect.  It helped age the fabric, paint and transfer.

I then laid the fabric over my cut piece of wood and centered it exactly where I wanted it.  I then did a coat of Mod Podge.  That is what is giving the white appearance in this photo, but it dries clear.  After that was completely dry I did the sides and cut off the excess fabric.

Wha la.  How awesome is that?  The Mod Podge will protect the top from glass marks or spills. 

I love the way it turned out and I can't wait to try this transfer method on other projects.  

Can you see why I couldn't just toss these tables in the garbage?  They have a lot of charming details.  I love the shell like design on the drawer, very cute.  Also, earlier I mentioned that the tables were too white.  I just sanded them a little and added a brown glaze to antique it and warm up the finish a little.  Much better.

Look how pretty these legs are.  

Another project success and it only took me a year.  Haha!

Have a great day.