It’s so easy to create a “French” table when you embellish it with DIY furniture appliqués!

If you read my post last week, you know that I’ve been experimenting with making my own furniture appliqués by using silicone molds and resin. I’ve been looking for an inexpensive piece of furniture that I could use the appliqués on, and found what I was looking for recently at an estate sale.

It was a sweet little wood table with a marble top, and it was tagged at only $38.00, so the price was perfect!

The table was a little timeworn and needed some love, making it the ideal piece for this makeover using DIY furniture appliqués. It also had the right “bones” with curvy legs ending with the iconic French style snail feet, and the original marble top was very pretty in different shades of rose. 

This is what my sweet little table looked like when I brought it home from the estate sale. It had seen better days with gouges in the wood, and an old repair to one of the back legs.

And now, this is what my DIY French table looks like after it’s amazing transformation with paint and appliqués!

It was so easy to create the appliqués out of resin and silicone molds. If you missed that post, click HERE to see the details. 

I have adored French style furniture for years, but the prices have become very high for authentic antique pieces.

This DIY is perfect for adding a little bit of “frenchiness” to an estate sale, yard sale, or thrift store piece of furniture! Especially those pieces that are a bit neglected and have seen better days. 

{May contain affiliate links}

The great thing about adding appliqués to furniture is that you can make it as fancy as you like.

For this project, I used paint that I already had on hand. I wanted the table to be a pale blue with gilded accents, so I used Pure and Original Classico paint in the colors Lagoon Water and highlighted with Sea Salt. If you’ve never tried the paint from Pure and Original, you will love it. It’s so easy to work with and the selection of European colors is quite extensive.

After I made the furniture appliqués and adhered them to the table, (you can see those details HERE) I painted two coats of the paint in color Lagoon Water, letting each coat dry in between. 

To add a few highlights, I dry brushed the color Sea Salt on a lot of the raised areas of the table.

Dry brushing is very easy. Simply dip your brush, and then wipe off most of the paint, leaving very little in the bristles. Then brush on any raised areas to add highlights. 

The last coat was adding the “patina” by using my homemade glaze. This is such an important step in adding depth to a piece of furniture. It’s so easy to do, and makes a huge impact on “aging” the furniture. 

I used the glaze in all of the recesses and nooks and crannies, anywhere that I wanted to see the details come out. Using glaze is the perfect way to create an antique look. It’s where the magic happens!

My favorite part of painting any piece of furniture is gilding those gorgeous details!

There are so many different products on the market for adding gilt to a piece of furniture, but one of my favorites is Rub-N-Buff gilding wax. It comes in several different colors, and for this table, I used the color Gold Leaf. 

Rub-N-Buff is easy to apply, either using your finger or a small brush, and it dries quickly. 

The final step was sealing everything with wax. My favorite wax is the Pure and Original Italian Wax. It’s a liquid wax and very easy to work with. Just brush on two coats, letting dry in between. Once it’s dry, buff with a soft cloth, for a beautiful low sheen. 

This sweet little table has such a pretty piece of marble on top. The pictures don’t do it justice and really don’t show the color properly. 

It’s amazing how a sad, neglected little table can be transformed with paint, furniture appliqués, and gilding!

So the next time you’re at an estate sale, yard sale, or thrift store and you see a piece of furniture that’s seen better days, perhaps you will be inspired to save it and give it new life!

Using furniture appliqués, paint, and gilding is the perfect way to get the look you want without spending hundreds of dollars! 

Cheers, Cindy