I found this telephone table online about a month ago.  I thought it was adorable and that it would be perfect painted a bright shade of coral and placed by my front door.  I’ve been on a kick of painting with bright corals and teals to add color to my various shades of brown and cream walls.  Sometimes my bright ideas don’t always turn out the way I want them to!

After lightly sanding this cute little bench, I started sorting through my paint colors.  I knew that I wanted this coral to be a little bit lighter than my favorite book table – see below…So I grabbed my General Finishes Coral Crush and added a bit of the Antique White to give it a lighter and creamy finish.  I had used a similar shade for the hombre dresser I painted this spring and it turned out adorable.  Turns out, the shade of the top row of drawers in this following picture is much more tolerable in small doses than instead of an entire bench! Unfortunately, I did not take a picture of this phase of my transformation, but I assure you, it was reminiscent of an extra large bottle of Pepto!  So I didn’t like that shade…no worries!  I was a master at mixing nail polish colors to find the perfect shade so certainly I can do the same with paint!  Ummm, no.  If I remember correctly, that never worked and the polish ended up sitting in my cupboard for years until I decided to throw it out.  It turns out the same applies to this! I decided that I would add a little bit of bright pink chalk paint to the creamy coral crush.  I mixed and then added a little bit more.  I settled in and painted my second coat on my, ahem, adorable telephone table.  I ended up with this.  It was much brighter than I was hoping for.  I distressed it a bit to tone it down and then decided to leave it as it was and set it by my front door to see if it grew on me.  It did not!  However, it sat there for several weeks.  Every time I’d walk down the stairs I would see it there, sigh, and know that it needed something different but I wasn’t sure what just yet.

Fast forward a few weeks to a junking expedition with my mom.  I had a few pieces that I purchased and wanted to get done before the garage sale.  I seem to do my best work when I’m down to the wire and have a deadline looming over me.  I worked on my three projects and decided to bring the telephone table out for one more go.  Why not?! One of the tables I was painting was a dark General Finishes Queenstown Grey and was turning out beautiful.  I decided to try a lighter shade of grey on the bench so grabbed my Driftwood GF paint.  I only added one coat and decided to try distressing to see how it would look with the hodge-podge pink shade underneath.  The results were amazing!!  I sanded lightly in some spots and a bit rougher in others.  It resulted in a very cool finish of grey with a bit of pink showing through in spots and wood finish in others.  It is a huge improvement!  I love how it turned out! The hint of pink is perfect and exactly what it needed!

It’s just a perfect example that a vision may not turn out exactly how you are thinking but don’t give up or thrown in the towel!  Simply step back for a few days (or weeks in my case) and a new idea may present itself!  It’s also a great example of how a more neutral color layered over a fun and funky shade can be beneficial when distressing!

In the end, this grey doesn’t work on my chocolate brown wall.  Instead it kind of blends right in!  That’s ok, though.   I would rather finish something, have it turn out amazing, and offer it to someone else than be less than pleased.  This was a fun project and a fun lesson.  I know I will be doing this method again in the future!