Before and After : Black and White French Provincial Bedroom Set Refinish

Here is another great custom set for a client! She really loves black and white, and so we designed this beautiful refinish based on an inspiration piece that was all white, with black trim. The gorgeous chest of drawers and nightstand are curved, and also had beautiful wood grain. What this means for a high-contrast finish is that even after a secure taping between colors, I still needed to come back and use a fine detail brush to touch up. It was worth it! This high-impact refinish is a total showstopper!

I really love the soft vintage-y feel of Annie Sloan Chalk Paints, but they don't make a true black. So for this, I borrowed a tip from another refinisher, and combined Graphite Paint with a bottle of India Ink to make a jet black.

I also spray-painted the hardware with Rustoleum hammered look black. The trick to getting a beautiful finish while preserving the original shapes of the hardware is to use light passes and build the color, and not let it pool from overspray. The faux keyhole at the top could not be removed without risking damage, so I sprayed directly into a disposable bowl, then quickly and carefully applied the paint with a QTip, pressing first in the center of the metal, then pushing the paint toward the sides.

Before and After : 9 Drawer French Provincial Dresser in Scandinavian Pink Blend

This lovely lady was a great find for a client! We got a beautiful French Provincial bedroom set with the 9-drawer style dresser her daughter loved, and gave it a modern, sophisticated, yet feminine redo! For this, they selected a custom blend of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Scandinavian Pink and Old White. If you're near a retailer, try to see the colors in person! There's a great store nearby here called the Weathered Cottage, which has a book of the colors blended with Old White so you can envision the great range of colors you can achieve from any given paint. Your retailer will also likely have examples of the paints with clear vs dark wax. The colors can definitely look different in person, so I highly recommend you look for the retailer nearest you, and give them an in-person visit!

The second consideration on this great vintage piece was the handles. There was one piece of hardware missing, so the first option would have been to look for an exact replacement. However, due to the beautiful curvature of the drawer faces, the original hardware actually made it a little difficult to grasp the handles - since both the drawer faces and the handles were curved in the same direction, there was a limited amount of space in which to grasp with fingertips. So, we found these great bail-style pulls as an option that gave a great vintage color, yet modern feel, and dropped away from the drawer fronts in a manner to give more sufficient manner. Aren't they gorgeous? And super usable and accessible.

Here's the full before and after:

Simply lovely! Scandinavian pink is a gorgeous, mature pink with coral undertones. In this case, we used a matte polyurethane for a gorgeous finish.

UPDATE: This gorgeous dresser now has a sibling! Check out the corresponding vanity by clicking here!

Color Story: Inspiration Series

I'm super excited to begin sharing some of my inspirations behind the colorful refinishes I've been working on. I am so blessed to be able to enjoy the beauty of nature and outdoors, and have been able to capture a few of those moments on film.. well ok, digitally. I'll be adding some inspirations to my before-and-after posts, but also have a few projects that don't have their own posts, so I'll share them here! Be sure to click on the "Color Story" label to see more!

First, a gorgeous Bombay console table painted in Annie Sloan Antibes green (over a shimmery cola color by Martha Stewart interiors), distressed, and with clear and dark waxes.

Click below to see more!

Before and After : Vintage Writing Desk

I have been absolutely obsessed with photography lately! (Shameless plug - follow me on Instagram @forloveofthepaint to share my art and inspiration). So I decided to capture some of my inspirations and put them side-by-side with the before and after series for you to enjoy! The first is a gorgeous desk redo in Annie Sloan Chalk Paint - Napoleonic Blue. For those of you who don't know, I am trying to use a new color every month this year, and pretty sure I'm on track with # 5 here!

I did a very light distressing on the paint, then clear and dark waxes. I'm super excited about the gorgeous blue! And here's the Color Story: Inspiration behind it... Bluebonnets! Can't love a Texas spring without the requisite bluebonnet photo :) There is literally nothing quite like that rolling field of blue.

What do you think? Love it? I'll be putting together more color stories in the coming weeks. I look forward to sharing them with you!!

Before and After : 5 Drawer Vintage French Provincial Chest of Drawers

This gem was a great find, and it was just missing its handles. It actually was being used with standard round cabinet knobs, but the previous owner had some of the original handles. One, however, was broken. I was able to find a very close match on Etsy (ummm love Etsy, and they don't pay me to say that!). However, I thought it wouldn't look *quite* right since they weren't an exact match. Since the chest has 5 drawers, separated by a midline, I decided to order 2 of the replacement pulls for above the midline, and use the 3 original for below. It worked out to make the shapes look very cohesive and natural for this piece! However, the colors were a little different. The client wanted a distressed look to the handles, but with the different color metals, I decided to first spray paint the pulls all the same color, THEN do a color wash over them. Eureka! We were on to something.

The client picked Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Pure White, and Paris Grey. She also selected brushed nickel with a Pure White wash for the handles. Here's the before and after of the chest:

 The hardware looks like it totally belongs, I think! Beautiful :) Here's how I achieved that cohesive look:
Before: notice the very slightly different shape and patina to the hardware. I cleaned them well and laid them in a wide flat box so I could get them all with even passes with the spray.
Step 1: several super light coats of Rustoleum spray paint, dried overnight.
Step 2: dry brush of the color overlay (Pure White, in this case).

I started by doing an actual wash of color, but it wasn't adhering to the hardware the way I wanted, so I wiped it off well and changed tactics to the dry brushing with barely any paint on the brush. I gradually built up color over about 3 passes per handle until it looked just right. Et Voila! I this it's gorgeous and sophisticated, and just exactly what the client envisioned. What could be better?