Lime Washing My Factory Cart for a Belgian-Furniture Look

Several months ago I bought a factory cart and wanted to use it as a coffee table on my screened porch.  Let's just say the price was right but the colors weren't.  It was only $100.  I've seen them as high as $600.   Ever the bargain hunter, I decided I could do something with it to make it work for me.

Here's what it looked like.  Red, green, and a touch of yellow.  Yuck.

The equally attractive under side.  It looks like a dead bug.

First,  I bought some environmentally safe paint stripper to remove the Christmas colors.  

Either I wasn't patient enough or it didn't work.

Plan B.  I used a stainless steel paint in a flat finish.  It was something my husband had on hand.  His hobby is working on vintage cars and this paint was manufactured by Eastwood, an auto parts restoration company, and is sold for painting cast metal.   I liked its flat finish.  I sanded and cleaned the entire cart and applied the paint to all metal surfaces. Yea, colors were gone.
I think that any gray paint in a flat finish that can be used on metal would work just as well.

Next, the liming.  I went on line and was ready to buy a very expensive liming kit.
I read a little more about liming and found out that all a liming finish is is diluted white paint which settles into and accentuates the wood grain.
Oak is the type of wood you most see with a lime wash because of its very deep and visible grain.

How lucky am I?  The wood on my cart was oak.   I decided I wanted to use some very light gray paint.  The closest color would be Benjamin Moore Rockport Gray.  Or, you could just use white.

Instead of mixing the paint with water, I saturated the boards with a wet cloth, painted on the gray, then followed with another wet cloth, wiping off the paint.  It worked!  The paint stuck in the wood grain and lightly coated the rest of the surface.

Here's what it looked like when I finished.  The paint accentuated the grain and gave a translucent finish to the smooth  surfaces.  It didn't even take an hour.

This is the wood top.  The paint very easily filled into the grain.
I need to mention that this was a raw wood surface that I sanded.

In place in the screened porch.

A  View from the Top

Give it a try.  Easy Peasy.

Kathy

Completed Porch

If you missed the original screened porch post, go here.  If you missed final results of the posts on the screened porch, go here for view one, here for view two, and here for view three.