gate leg table in general finishes graystone stain and reverent gray milk paint
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Gate leg tables are quite tedious to paint but they’re worth it if you can hang in there!
I recently refinished this antique gate leg table in General Finishes Graystone Water Based Wood Stain and Reverent Gray Milk Paint.
the top
This gate leg table came to me from a woman who was downsizing her home. She had lots of quality antique pieces that couldn’t go with her into her new space. She invited me over to her home to pick through her furniture and this gate leg table is one of the items I brought home.
The top was in great condition, it simply needed to be stripped and re-stained. I chose General Finishes new Water Based Wood Stain color “Graystone” for my color choice.
Graystone is so on trend right now and General Finishes totally nailed it when they developed this shade. I’ve used it on a few projects so far and I’m absolutely in love. I personally think it looks good on EVERYTHING! You can read about how I used it on this Jacobean style buffet in this blog post.
The top stripped and sanded down beautifully and Graystone Water Based Wood Stain has brought this table back into the modern age!
What’s nice about a gate leg table is that it can be folded flat when it’s not in use, giving it a very small footprint in your home. If company comes over, or you need more space, simply open the leaves and prop them up on the legs that swing out (like a gate).
spraying The base
The base of this gate leg table has tons of spindles. Actually, the base is nothing but spindles! These little guys are tricky to paint with a brush, so I opted to spray my primer and paint on instead.
I’ve been practicing with my Earlex 5500 paint sprayer for a few months now. I don’t have my technique perfected quite yet, but it makes short work of hard-to-paint surfaces like these!
Because I wanted to use General Finishes new Milk Paint color, “Reverent Gray” on the base, I needed to prime first.
It’s a light enough shade where bleed through could have been a concern, so I sprayed on two coats of General Finishes super high quality primer, Stain Blocker.
Everything went on like a dream! General Finishes products are ideal for spraying if you have the equipment and set up to do so. I highly encourage you to try this technique, especially if you refinish furniture for a living like I do. It cuts your labor hours down dramatically!
Now I don’t spray everything all the time. I still apply my paint finishes by hand the majority of the time. But every now and then, there are some pieces that are a pain in the rump to do by hand, so I break out my sprayer!
gatored texture
The spindles on the gate leg table have the most gorgeous gatored texture!
These bumps occur when an existing finish was exposed to dramatic temperature changes over the years. Typically, if pieces are stored in an attic or basement, they’ll develop these bumps, which we call “gatoring”. This is due to the expansion and contraction of the wood when it’s exposed to temperature shifts.
Some people don’t like this kind of character and they feel they need to sand or strip it off. I absolutely love it and keep it whenever I see it.
To enhance the gatored texture, I mixed up a custom mix of Antiquing and White Wax by Miss Mustard Seed’s Milk Paint.
This combination created a lovely warm gray colored wax, which fit in perfectly with the Reverent Gray Milk Paint and the Graystone Water Based Wood Stain!
Typically, I seal General Finishes Milk Paint with one of their topcoats. For this table however, getting a water based glaze and topcoat around those spindles seemed like it would be too much of a chore. So I opted for one of Miss Mustard Seed’s waxes instead. I recommend this on surfaces that won’t receive a lot of wear and tear. Typically I wouldn’t recommend topping General Finishes paint with a wax, but in this case, it worked!
a perfect gray combination
While I’m very pleased with how this project turned out, I don’t think I’ll be refinishing another gate leg table anytime soon! This piece was a lot of work from start to finish and I need a break from the spindle insanity.
Despite all the work, the products I picked provided the perfect combination of gray tones.
It was certainly worth it, don’t you think?
