Proof of Love: A Little Bit 'o Zebra in the Courtyard

I promised a tutorial on how I did my little table that sits in my front courtyard. Handsome bought me the table that matches the bench (that is up this weekend for a makeover) years ago for Mother's Day...it was literally about 7 or 8 years ago.

This little guy...sad and pathetic, isn't he?...is {WEATHERED} to say the least. It was so bad that just our normal polyurethane job would not do. So I whipped out some paint...I do love to paint!

First take the table apart (it is easier to paint and sand) and sand it down to strip off all the old varnish, mine was mostly peeling off - made my job easier. I then coated it with some bright yellow paint my friend gave me...a very pretty, sunny color, but too bright on it's own. After that dried, I painted on some white paint and then distressed it (poor table...it is already pretty distressed!) by sanding it some more - so the yellow shows through the white.

{Are you following me?}

hehehehe

Chevron designs are ALL the rage right now in Blogland...and in the designer world. Pottery Barn, West Elm, Crate and Barrell...they're all doing it. I am not a big chevron freak...too linear for my wavy kind of brain...but zebra stripes are like a chevron, only not so structured.

That's a chevron I can wrap my brain around!

I printed out a picture of zebra print from Google Images and enlarged it on the copier 350%

so that it would fit in the middle of the table.

Then came the ~~sucky~~ {fun} part...cutting a template. I cut out where I wanted the paint to go - on my copy there was "white" space and "black" space. It doesn't really matter which you cut out - you'll get the same affect and your eyes will start to cross and you'll forget whether you were cutting the white part or the black part...and you'll think you're losing your mind!

LOL

Lay the template where you want it to be and tape it onto your table (or whatever you are painting).

And start painting (I mixed the bright yellow with some white to tone it down some)...

Take a break - have a Diet Dr. Pepper, check out your work...have your daughter come by and tell you it is going to be a project FAIL...laugh, while thinking..."what if she's right?"

Get back to work!

Once you have done a first coat, I recommend removing the paper quickly, otherwise some of it gets stuck...I learned this the hard way and had to use some tweezers to remove small pieces.

Freehand the second coat - there may be some empty space...freehand in some more "stripes" - that's what is great about a zebra...they are a freak of nature and they have stripes and spaces everywhere so you can't go wrong... case in point, the one hanging on my trophy room wall...

Point is...no one will be able to tell!