Before and After: Downton Abbey Inspired Union Jack table

I usually find my inspiration for painted furniture in my California world. The beach, the mountains, the hills sides. Hence, I use a lot of blues and grays and greens. I think they fit into the style of California perfectly. Plus it’s easy to craft, paint and design with colors you love. But in this case I found my inspiration watching tv.

Yup, bum glued to the couch catching up on Downton Abbey. If you haven’t watched it’s a pretty addicting show. I am looking forward to new episodes in January. So when I found this old side table I knew it had some potential. And a Union Jack would be positively fitting for a table with such high pedigree.

I took this pic with my phone so it’s a wee bit fuzzy.

I know it’s hard to see the potential and pedigree in a piece like this. In fact, I pulled it out of the trash and I almost tossed it back in. But after a little wood glue and a light sanding this table was ready to go.

I painted the base in CeCe Caldwell’s Traverse City Cherry and the top in Vintage White. I taped off the Union Jack using Frog Tape (I will do a tutorial on how to measure it all out and tape it off in another post) For the blue I just used AppleBarrel Aryclic craft paint in Real Navy. I sealed the entire thing with Ce Ce Caldwell’s Clear Wax. And Ta Da! My homage to Downton Abbey.