I have come over to the "D"ark side

But "D" does not stand for dark.

It stands for distressed.

I was never really a fan of distressed stuff.

Why would I take something nice and make it look old and beat up?

My kids do this the natural way.

I had jokingly said that if people wanted to distress something, I'd pay them to take loan them my nine kids and they would take care of it in no time.

But, then I saw a distressed finial in the Pottery Barn catalog. It was so stinkin cool, but, unfortunately, it was $39.

I just couldn't bring myself to spend $39 on an old beat-up piece of wood.

But, then I came across the perfect chunky, old, beat-up piece of wood at my main squeezie, Goodwill. It was $2.99

Be still my beating heart...

It was missing a finial, which made me feel very sorry for it.

So, I marched myself over to Michael's Crafts and picked one up for $3.

Here are the two pieces, side-by-side.

I was reeeeaaallly hoping that they would get along and play nicely together.

I glued them together with some Liquid Nails and spray painted the finial Espresso to match the bottom part.

After it had dried, the entire piece got a coat of Heirloom White American Accents paint.

Then, I roughed it up. Ha! Makes me feel tough when I say that.

Relax, I only used a bit o' sandpaper.

A layer of Ralph Lauren glaze (tinted Old Violin) over the top and then wiped off left it looking "distressed".

I think it looks like it belongs in my home.

Don't know what that says about me though...

Come and check out the following parties that I link too-lots of good stuff there!