Happy Monday- Hope you all had an awesome 4th of July weekend! We had a great time catching up with family and friends. Chris and I even got a couple days to ourselves while the kids hung out with the grandparents gorging themselves on chocolate. (My dad literally sent me a text saying he was pretty sure Emmy was chocolate drunk and wouldn’t stop yapping!) We worked in the yard together, cried about the deer that jumped our fence and feasted on all of our veggie plants together, went shopping at the outlets, and just enjoyed each other’s company and made each other laugh. We’ve been making plans for the backyard and are hoping to turn it into a great space for the kids to play and relax with their friends. It’s a large space and there’s an area that has several trees perfect for a hideout. Hidden under all the tress back there was a picnic table the previous owners left behind. We pulled it out so I could give it a makeover and make it useable- it was still very sturdy, just needed some cleaning up and love! 
As you can see we have a lot of weeds this table was pretty green, and not in the eco friendly sense. I went to town sanding it all over with my orbital sander, ridding it of the green coating it had developed. Once it was sanded all over, I wiped it clean with a damp rag and got to work priming it with a Zinnser interior and exterior water based primer. I gave it one coat, and once it was dry I applied a coat of Behr Premium Plus exterior paint in satin finish white. Once all of the white was applied, I thought about how I could make this table fun for the kids, but edgy and not cutesy. I perused my furniture idea pinterest board and came across this gorgeous piece from Estuary Designs. 
I just LOVE this look and used it as well as the look of tie dye as inspiration. I consulted my General Finishes stash of paint and eventually settled on two colors: Federal Blue and Patina Green. I started by painting Patina Green in the center of the table top, covering a little more than a third of the table. It took two coats of paint over the white. I then covered the exterior two thirds of the table top that remained white with Federal blue, and used the tip of my angled brush to feather it in, creating the tie dye effect edges where the paint meets. I used 3 coats of Federal blue over the white. 
I left the benches white because I knew that would be where little tender skinned legs would be sitting, and I didn’t want to put a color there that would soak up heat in the sunshine. 
As you can see here, I did paint the edges and also between the tabletop slats. I left them white at first, but I wasn’t a fan of that look. 
I am anxious for the kids to see their new table in the backyard! It’s going to be in the 90’s today, but our AC is broken and won’t be fixed until Wednesday, so we may just sit out here today for lunch. 
After lunch I think we might take turns spraying each other with the hose. 🙂 Also, I wanted to send out a thank you to Meaghan of The Charming Farmer for featuring my blog as one of her favorites! I was supposed to share 3 of my favorites, but I could not narrow my list of 537 favorite blogs down to just 3. Just know you all are loved!
Sharing here:
