My Sister's Birthday Present - What Once Was Old

I've recently become a little obsessed with making old things new!  Especially things with sentimental value.  This chalk paint project is my favorite to date...half because of the sentimental value of the piece and half because I am truly in love with the end product!  

They say you know you're giving someone a great gift when you want to keep it for yourself and well it was pretty hard to give this one away, but at the same time I COULDN'T wait to see Lauren's face when I told her the bench was made out of our crib!

This was what I started with one of the short sides from me and my sister's crib (see what I mean about the sentimental value ;))!  Thankfully a crib has two short sides so I'll be putting in my order for Brandon to whip one up for me very soon! 

After about 30  (frustrating) minutes of me trying to draw and explain the vision in my head my talented husband finally "saw it"  and was able to create it for me.  Brandon did an excellent job!  He knew how special this piece was and took extra time to drill and screw everything to prevent any of the wood from splitting.  

After he finished I got to have a turn!  First, I filled and sanded all the holes.  Then it got two coats of Annie Sloan's Coco, light distressing, a wash of Old White, and a coat of Annie Sloan Clear Wax. 

This was my first experience using the "wash" technique with chalk paint and I was very pleased.  It gives you a totally different look that you can't achieve by layering paint.  It is hard to capture the details in a picture but here is the finished product. 

...and she loved it!!