Monday, February 11, 2013

paint colors & tips

Hello bloggy friends!

Sorry for the short hiatus. I always have good intentions of posting, but then life seems to get in the way. kwim? I have good news though...

WE SOLD OUR HOUSE!

woo hoo! The new owners are actually good friends of ours (their daughter is my daughter Chloe's best friend.) So she is quite excited about having her best friend live in our house - for sleepovers she'll be able to sleep in her old room - ha! They need to sell their house first, not to mention we still need to fix up the temporary house we'll be staying in while we build. So we're shooting to move sometime in April if all goes well. But at least this way I won't have a million people coming over for showings which means I won't have to keep everything clean and picked up. Not to mention we won't have to list it with a realtor, which is a HUGE savings! WINNING :)

So...back to our regularly schedule programming:

Paint colors! I promised to share the colors I used on my dresser and here it is:


 Martha Stewart's Bedford Gray



It's such a beautiful warm gray. I love it! We actually decided to paint the bathroom vanity in the rehab house this color too. Hopefully I'll have pics to share soon.














































To make the detailed carvings on the top two drawers pop a little more, I painted those in a very light gray color. Took me a few tries to get the color right, but what I basically did was start with a white paint I already had from a previous project and very slowly mixed it with a tiny bit of the Bedford Gray until I got a color I was happy with.

So here's the basic steps I took to paint this piece:

1. Lightly sanded the entire piece to rough up the finish so the paint would adhere well.

2. I did NOT prime because I wanted the wood finish to show through underneath after I distressed the edges a bit.

3. Painted 2 coats of Bedford Gray over entire piece, lightly sanding between coats with extra fine sand paper (220 grit) to get that super smooth finish. Dust with tack cloth after sanding.

4. Painted 2 coats of the light gray on the drawer carvings. Let everything dry over night.

5. Then I sanded the edges and distressed it in places I thought would look natural.

6. Next I took a cotton rag and wiped the whole piece very lightly with Early American stain (you can use any stain you want, this is what I had on hand.) The stain soaks into the wood edges and gives it that nice rustic, time worn appearance so the paint is not so fresh and glaring looking.

7. Then to get the smooth as a baby's butt awesome finish that begs to be touched, I used this:





This is the secret ingredient to painting furniture in my opinion! You wipe it on with a cotton rag in circular motions just like car wax. Then wait 10-15 minutes and come back with a clean rag and buff it to a gorgeous shiny smooth finish! Make sure to let it cure for a day or two. I happen to like using wax MUCH better than a poly finish for my painted furniture pieces.






















And there you have it! I really like how it turned out. Hubby has even touted its praises, which is the ultimate compliment! It's the perfect size for a media stand and has tons of storage. Not bad for $100 + 10 bucks for a quart of paint - everything else I already had on hand.

Have you had success painting garage sale cast offs? Be sure to share any tips of your own. I'd love to hear them!

5 comments:

Michelle said...

wax on, wax off. Congrats on the house sale! What a blessing to NOT have to show it.

christy said...

Yes Michelle - we are SO thankful to not have to list it! Hopefully everything will work out :)

Michelle said...

You are such a tease! How often do you plan on posting so I don't get disappointed every time I check in to find the same old post?
;)

Michelle said...

still waiting for more :)

angela | the painted house said...

Congratulations on the sale of the house!

And that dresser turned out soooo pretty. What great details!

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