Rustic and Distressed, finally

I have always wanted to try distressing my furniture but never have the heart to take sandpaper to fresh paint job.  But finally I found the right project to try it on.  I found these little end tables at Goodwill for $8.  For the pair!  I was pretty excited about that.

 I love finding little pieces to work on since painting dressers no longer works for me.  I have two carseats in my backseat and can't flip down one side to accommodate bigger stuff.

When I first saw these tables I knew I finally had a project to use a little sample of black paint that I bought a loooong time ago.  This is the look I had in mind.

Image from Pottery Barn (of course!)

The tops got a good sanding
and then a beating for some
extra rustic factor and then
stained Minwax's Chestnut
in a gel stain.  I know a lot of
other bloggers seem to love
the gel stains but I was not
 impressed.  The black satin
paint finish looked fantastic but I was still determined to try the distressing. 

I just started sanding where I thought it would look natural and tried not to get too carried away.  I also applied a little bit of stain over the sanded parts for more of an aged look.

The final look is something I'm really happy with.  I might even consider keeping them 

for my own living room.  We'll see!