Gone Graphic

While I was in Mississippi last weekend, I mentioned I went to Hobby Lobby and purchased some stencils- a 5" block letter, as well as a harlequin stencil. I've always love the Harlequin design but am not so handy at taping it all off and doing it that way. Last week I put those two stencils to some use!
First up is this little coffee table I purchased from the local Goodwill for a whopping $8.

It had a sweet and simple shape, and I planned on painting it white and distressing it, keeping with its simplicity. But after the white was on and the distressing done, I was not in love. If I had seen it in a store, I would not have ooh-ed and ah-ed over it, so I pondered.... mirror? done that. another color in the inset? too blah. and then I remembered my new harlequin stencil, found my favorite oops paint blue, and painted on the design. And halfway through realized I should have started in the center and worked my way out, rather than starting on one side and working my way over. Oops. So then I thought about redoing it all, but the thought of that was tiring in itself! I let it sit for a day, and asked 2 trustworthy friends their opinions, and they both said it was good as is, and the off center design even added to the charm. What do you think?


Next up was this adorable drop leaf antique table.

This piece was donated to me a long long time ago, and I just hadn't been inspired yet. Also, it is missing the actual pieces to support the drop leaves and I couldn't find inexpensive replacements. So unfortunately these leaves will always be dropped! But honestly, I don't know many people who use drop-leaf accent tables with the leaves up, so does it really matter? Again, I started with white, and this time planned to do the harlequin stencil again. Once it was painted white, I thought again about the harlequin stencil and decided a word along the side would be cool, but it had to be a long word since the table is quite large for a side table. I chose "happiness" and decided my oops spring green would be perfect and a happy color to suit the word itself. I didn't plan it out very well though, so had to add the exclamation point, so instead of "happiness" it reads "happiness!". oh well! I still love it as is! The lady who donated it to me only asked that I keep the original hardwate, so I did. And I love the dark contrast it gives to the rest of the piece.


I am not usually a stencil person, but I love how these turned out. Thank you Hobby Lobby!
And just for fun.... I have so many pictures of my kids standing next to various tables and dressers because they just want to be in the picture so badly! so naturally, they posed with these tables tonight!


Linking to.....
Between Naps on The Porch's Met Monday






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Miss Mustard Seed's Furniture Friday
The Shabby Nest's Frugal Friday