Easy Ballard Designs Hack – How to Make Metal Furniture Look Aged

Hello, I hope you all had a wonderful holiday weekend!  Mine was spent poolside, with friends and family, and lots of delicious BBQ.  I also managed to squeeze in a little project over the three-day weekend (I love having an extra day off from work) and I’m going to share this easy Ballard Desings hack with you and how I gave this metal side table an aged metal look.

This hack was sooooo easy, even though I initially tried to make it more complicated than necessary!  I had picked up this little Threshold end table at Target a few months ago after eyeing it on the shelf for awhile.

It reminded me of this table from Ballard Designs, which I have pinned to  my “My Family Room” inspiration board on Pinterest.  Not quite as detailed, but still very similar!

Via

I loved the stamped metal top and the industrial look of my Target find, but I didn’t care so much for the brassy-gold color.

When the table went on clearance for $24, I knew that, with a small investment of time and a few dollars in paint, it would work as a stand- in until I could finish saving my pennies for the Ballard table.  So I bought it, brought it home, and put it in my den/office (where it sat collecting dust) while I researched how to “age metal” on the interwebs.  I found all kinds of paint kits that promised me the look I was after.  My local home improvement store even sold kits that came with several different products that you use in combination to give your item an aged look. This project was starting to get complicated.  On closer inspection of the Ballard table, it looked like the base color was silver with black paint dry brushed on top, then sanded off on the detailed areas, revealing the silver color underneath.  Um, I could do that for a lot less money than buying one of those kits.

I decided to leave the base coat gold, then I took some regular ol’ black acrylic craft paint and dry brushed it right on top.  Once that dried, I took some fine grit sandpaper and sanded the black paint off around the detailed areas, then I sanded a few random spots, to give the finish a more cohesive look.

Don’t worry if you accidentally take off too much paint, just go back over those areas using your black paint and dry brushing technique until you get the desired look.

When I was satisfied with the amount of distressing, I wiped my table down using a barely damp rag, then I sprayed the whole table with a matte finish clear coat (Valspar) for durability.  And that, my friends, is all there is to it.  Wasn’t that the easiest aging technique ever?

I love how this table turned out!  In fact, it looks so good next to my sofa, I may not want that beautiful Ballard table, after all!

What do you think of my easy Ballard hack?  Have you used a similar technique on metal furniture?  I’d love to hear about your experience!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

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