Y’all!!!?  Who loves farmhouse – anything? (raises hand) Pick me!!  

Ever wonder why we love it so much? I’ve thought often about this.  And I’ve concluded that the reason that I love farmhouse style is simply that it elevates imperfection.  Pure and simple.

That’s it.

Farmhouse style is about humble hospitality.  And joy.  And living simply.

I’m not one to go out and buy a load of ‘farmhouse’ tchotchkes just so they look good sitting somewhere. (A tchotchke is a little Slavic trinket that sits on the shelf and collects dust.) That just makes them farmhouse clutter.  Same as any other style of clutter.  

I like simple.

BUT, I have wished for white farmhouse candlesticks often.  Shabby, white-ish candlesticks.

Have you looked at prices of such things?  Ridiculous!  

I couldn’t do it.

So I’ve waited.  

I ‘ve had these darker candlesticks for ages that I never really liked.  The color is just too dark, making them not look right on any table or counter except one that is light or white.

I am always on the lookout for pieces that are the right SHAPE, even if not the right color.  (This is key.)

I found these other two candles at a discount store the other day.  Blue and silver but the RIGHT shape!

They were $5!

Sometimes you just need to be patient, right?  (And be cheaper than dirt.)

Here’s a fun fact about me:  I do not buy new furniture from a store.

This is true.  Most of our furniture has come from our parents or family.  We have never had our own bedroom suite.  Ever.  Our current set we inherited from my sweet mother-in-law.

When you are a military family for 25 years, buying new perfect furniture that will only get dinged and beat up on a moving truck seems an exercise in futility.  So, we’ve always adhered to the decorating rules of ‘shabby-chic’.

Back to the task at hand.

I began by painting them deep red with chalk paint that I already had. (Chalk paint is truly from God because it covers anything and everything that you want to cover up).

Initially, I thought that once they were white, I was going to sand them just enough for the red to show through a little.

Though these may not look like it, these are really a deep country red.  Here they look like a bright circus red.

I had a can of country red chalk paint already that I literally applied sloppily on purpose.  You’ll notice that I DID NOT paint deep in the creases so they look pretty shabby, (and beautiful). Chalk paint covers the metallic (painted) candlestick just like the others.

After they’d dried, I drove on to paint them white, off-white, really.

Hmmmm.  Very white.  And very boring.  

They seemed a little too perfect.  

So, I knew I had some dark wax that I had used before on other darker pieces that I’ve painted.  So I whipped that out.

Better already.

I grabbed a small (fairly stubby) paint brush and just gently added some darker (aging) color to the creases.  This adds instant age.

There’s literally no wrong way to do this.

You only need a tiny amount of wax on a brush at a time.  Only a dab!

I used a paper towel to blot a lot of the wax before applying to the candlesticks.  It was similar to using a ‘dry brushing’ technique.  

If you end up with a small blob somewhere, just use your paper towel to spread it out in the creases.

So there you have it!

I have a farmhouse candlestick set that didn’t cost me $100!  I did it for $10!  And I only spent a couple of hours from start to finish – including drying time!

This project will look better the SLOPPIER you paint it!

Happy decorating!