aging furniture

I went to a class on distressing or aging furniture about a month ago and I thought it would be fun to try out. It ended up being really easy and mistakes turn into beautiful things!! There are some supplies that you need to get.
Than comes the fun part finding the piece you want to do. I would recommend second hand stores, consignment stores, garage / yard sales, Craig's list, or old furniture that you have that you don't want any more. I found this desk that I could tell had lots of personality. It cost me a whole $4.50. I had a place in mind that I wanted to put it (I didn't end up putting it there, but have some place in mind). I started by sanding. There was a lot of grime on the top so I sanded the whole thing really well but I was told that you only need to rough it up a bit.

Next is choosing a color. For this piece I chose black, but it was a toss up with red....really you could do any color that would go with where you are going to put it and the look you are trying to go for. I painted the whole thing with a primer. Then I put 2 coats of black paint. I went back and forth wondering if I should do another coat but decided against it.

We than sanded all the edges with a palm sander. Some of the spots we brought all the way down to raw wood but then others we just did lightly. I decided not to sand any spots on the top but you could do that if you desire to make it look more worn. We than coated the desk lightly with a gel stain. Make sure that you apply it with the grain.

We then applied a copper paint in random spots to add texture a dimension to the piece.

I ended up putting it in my front entry way. I am very pleased with the way it turned out and can't wait to do another one.