Ornate small desk!

I purchased this fabulous little desk for a  who was looking for something small! I sent her a picture of this one and it was perfect for what she wanted!! There is so much detail and some serious spindled legs which I love! A pain to paint but the end result is always worth it!! 

The before pic... 

 

My customer wanted a black desk with turquoise showing through! After some painting, distressing, and waxing, here it is... Beautiful!!!

It came so nice and the customer LOVED it! I also replaced the existing knob with a pretty glass knob!

I love two toned pieces, it gives it a little something extra! 

Thanks for reading and happy painting!! 

~Amy 

I love Glaze!!!

I am working on a coffee table today with a lot of detail so I thought it would be the perfect piece to show how to glaze!

 If you are using chalk paint, you would apply the glaze after clear waxing just like if you were using dark wax. 

If you are using latex paint or milk paint, you can glaze away without needing a clear coat first. Then after you are all glazed and dried, you should seal your piece! 

I painted 2 coats of a shade of white I bought at Lowes. Distressed all the edges! 

One of my favorite products is Valspar's Antiquing glaze in black. I paint it on using a chip brush working in small sections. 

Using a clean rag or paper towel, start wiping! The nice thing about glaze is that it's workable for a little while. If you don't like it or not enough is coming off after you've wiped, use a damp cloth. That will take it almost all off! Apply more if needed and repeat the process! 

After it's all done, it will change the entire look of your piece! It will give it a nice aged look with lots of texture and depth! 

Good luck! 

~Amy 

Bombay accent table-from drab to FAB!!

I sometimes forget to take a before picture. I hate when that happens since you won't be able to fully appreciate the transformation!! 

I started out by thinking I wanted to do something simple and "safe". I painted 2 coats of General Finishes Milk paint in Millstone. It just wasn't doing it for me. It was lacking something... Some oomph!!! 

I bought some Annie Sloan Old Violet a little while ago and remember seeing a piece painted with it and couldn't believe that it was that color! 

Problem solved... I painted one thick coat on. The thing about the chalk paint is that  it's comes out so different once you apply clear wax and definitely the dark wax. What once was a purple-blue color is now a smoky gray/violet! Absolutely beautiful!!!

Let me back up... After before I applied the old violet, I sanded my piece using 220 grit sandpaper to smooth it out nicely. I've learned you get way better results when you sand in between coats!  

Sand all the edges and where you would normally have wear! Some areas are sanded down to the wood underneath and some areas show the 1st color! It's to totally random! That's how I like it!! 

Once you are happy with the amount of distressing, you need to seal your piece for protection! I've been using Annie Sloan's clear and dark wax but Johnson's paste wax or minwax furniture wax will work too! The dark wax is what gives you the texture and aging look you want! For that I do get the AS dark wax. 

I will have to post a separate tutorial on the waxes soon!! 

You can see the difference in the color on the top and the back leg. The back leg only has the clear wax! Dark wax was applied everywhere else. What a difference, right?!

A close up look at the distressing and the different colors coming through! 

Happy painting! 

Amy

Hardware-easy transformation

If you have some old brass hardware on your piece of furniture, a quick fix to brighten up your piece is to change the hardware!!  If you like the hardware itself, then a change in color will make a huge difference!!  A lot of the old drawer pulls are a little wider with the holes than newer hardware making it hard to find a replacement so painting them is the only option! 

I was painting a whole bedroom suite light gray and had a hard time figuring out what color the hardware would be... I wanted to do black but thought it would be too much of a stark contrast against this warm light gray. So I experimented! 

After cleaning all the hardware, I painted the them using my favorite spray paint, rustoleum's satin black. This spray paint   has primer in it making it extra durable!  Let dry overnight.  

My next favorite product is Briwax liming wax! It's white and is just so pretty when it's used! Using a small short brush, like a  chip brush, apply a small amount of wax everywhere, paying close attention to any crevices ( that's where you want the wax to sit).  After a minute, wipe off and see the beauty! If you wiped off too much, repeat the process! 

It is a learning process so be patient. Once you have the technique down, the possibilities are endless! You'll be waxing everything! 

Happy painting and waxing!!