Furniture Renovation Part V: Painting and Antiquing

Phew! We made it to the final segment in this series! Painting and antiquing furniture is a lot of fun, and it gives you that instant gratification that we all love so much.

The first step is to prepare the surface to receive the paint. You can sand it, or, if you're lazy like me, this liquid sandpaper might be a good option too:

After doing all that sanding on my table, I was ready for a change. I applied this liquid sander with a steel wool pad, and it definitely "roughed up" the surface enough to be able to take the paint. Just let it dry for 30 minutes or so, and then it's ready to paint. However, if your piece will be taking a lot of wear and tear, I think sanding might be the better way to go.

Then I just started painting! I used Behr brand (eggshell finish) in a pretty robin's egg blue that I totally copied from Tracey over at Notes from a Cottage Industry. She has a custom color recipe that I just took to Home Depot and had them mix for me. Love it!

I applied two coats of paint. I didn't prime first. I am on the fence about priming because I am lazy! I have primed before, if I am using a darker paint color, or if I know the piece needs to be super-durable. But like I said, laziness wins sometimes. So I leave the decision to you!

After the paint dried overnight, I went back to start the antiquing process. First I grabbed some sandpaper (150 grit) and gently rubbed off some of the paint along the edges of the table. If you click on the photo below to enlarge it, you can see one of the raw edges.

Then I got out my trusty Behr Faux Glaze. This stuff is fun! As you can see in the photo below, it is white until you add some color to it. The instructions say to add 4 parts glaze to 1 part color. I just added some acrylic paint that I had lying around (purchased from Hobby Lobby, it's Folk Art "Coffee Bean").

Here's the glaze after I mixed it with paint.

Basically, you just rub the glaze on until you like the way it looks. I used a damp paper towel to apply. Just kind of goop it on there, wait about 30-60 seconds to let it dry just a bit, then go back again with the paper towel to "tweak" how it looks. Work in small sections at a time and let a little more of the glaze gather in the corners and the crevices of the furniture. I think it looks more natural that way, as if the piece has aged over time.

Below, you can see how the glaze looks when it is dry. To get this look I just wiped back and forth with the paper towel, trying to create light streaks of color. I was going for a very understated "antique" look, but certainly you can add as much or as little as you like. I think a brown glaze looks nice on lighter colors, like this blue or a white or cream. If I was antiquing a black or brown piece, I would probably just use sandpaper on the edges and forget the glaze all together.

I will leave you with a few links that were helpful to me. Once again, Tracey over at Notes from a Cottage Industry has a great post on how she "antiques" her furniture. Also, Kimba from A Soft Place to Land recently gave us her Ten Tips on Painting Wood Furniture.

Good luck with all your projects! I hope this series has been helpful to you. And next week I will show you the final product...my new cottage work table is complete and ready for action!