Often, I will have an idea of a paint technique or design I want to try on a piece of furniture, before I even have a piece of furniture to paint. That is how it started with this last project. I had purchased a dresser that I thought would fit perfectly an idea I had been carrying around in my head. However, when I got it home and looked at it closer, I really didnt like how the moldings on the drawers were going to break up the very graphic image I wanted to put on it. I walked around for days, taking quick peeks at the piece and trying to quickly give myself a mental snapshot of the image on it. Does that make sense to anyone? Well, I just wasnt liking my imaginary snapshot in my head so, ugh, I decided to bag that idea for later.Now, I knew I wanted to do a hand painted element on this piece, because I was just in the mood for some decorative painting. My design background is in murals and I really find hand painting enjoyable. So, I had to think of something else. So where does a girl go to find painted furniture design inspiration...The Graphics Fairy!The Graphics Fairy is my go to place for inspiration and let me warn you, like visiting Pinterest, you will get off task. You may head there to look for designs for a furniture piece, but before you know it you will find yourself perusing tutorials on how to transfer beautiful french images onto tea cloths!Although I am "groupie" for french typography, I wanted to find some sort of flourish pattern to pick up the curves on the legs and bottom of this dresser. I decided to do a spencerian flourish with a bird. I also decided to do the piece all in cream and white shades. Heres how it all went down.Below is the dresser basecoated in American Paint Companys Chalk Paint in the color Rushmore, a beautiful earthy stone off white.
After selecting my graphic from the Graphic Fairy, I decided to transfer my image to my dresser using an overhead projector. If you do not have an overhead projector, another great technique I use for transferring large images is using blockposters.com to enlarge pictures. You can find a tutorial on that at the at the Graphics Fairy here.
tip..I didnt have transparency paper on hand and office depot is over 20 miles from my house, so in a pinch, I print out on a clear sheet protector we had laying around from my kids. Of course it will smear when you touch, but since you only have to use it one, be careful and dont touch it!
To trace my images, I used a watercolor pencil. Find them in the artist section of Michaels or your favorite craft store. Choose a color closest to the color you will be painting with, so I used a white pencil. After painting and when dry, you can just wipe away stray marks with a damp cloth. After you sketch the image up. Gather your painting supplies for the detail work:acrylic paint (you could use latex or whatever else you are comfortable with but for detail work I usually choose acrylics), water to dampen brush and clean, paper towel to dab brush,paper plate for paint, wet cloth to fix any mistakes, and brushesHere is how I usually set up my plate to paint. I poured out some white which was my main color, some Vandyke Brown tint I had on hand to add with white for lowlights (or you could use a raw uber or darker brown acrylic) and my brushes.Because this was more detailed work I used an assortment of smaller sized straight brushes, round and liner brushes and a filbert brush.
I painted the whole mural in white first. To make my brush flow smoothly for long flourishes, I dip my brush in water first and then mix with the paint to make a creamier mix. Sometimes I even wipe the surface with a damp rag so my brush wont drag while moving it, but in this case, I did not want to wipe off my water color pencil!
To create a little dimension, I added the darker accent color sort of as a shadow. Adding it to the inside of swirls and underneath selected brush strokes. Again, mix water with this color to get good flow.
After the mural was painted and had dried. I went over the whole piece with a 220 sanding block to distress. Paying closest attention to decorative details, corners and edges which is where a piece would naturally age first.
I finished the piece with a top coat of American Paint Companys clear wax followed by Miss Mustard Seeds White Wax to give it an overall white wash. (I will be posting a separate tutorial for waxing this piece soon).
Find beauty in your day!
Debbie Linking to These Fabulous Blogs: Miss Mustard Seed The Graphics Fairy
One of my favorite parts to Upstyling furniture, is picking out knobs and pulls. Now sometimes, you get lucky and have a piece with beautiful vintage hardware and you dont have to do a thing. Here I only switched out the top two knobs. The pulls are original.
Pretty vintage pulls.
Other times, I will use the original knobs...but update them. Here, I just painted the pulls the same color as the dresser or at least added touches of the paint color to tie it all together.
Just a light coat of chalk paint to tone down the brass.
Knobs lightly painted for a tone on tone look.
But, sometimes you might have furniture with missing or dated knobs. So... in this post I want to round up some of my best advice for dressing up furniture with hardware. Best way to clean dirty hardware:To clean dirty hardware I like to soak in a bath of baking soda and vinegar and use a old toothbrush for scrubbing if necessary. To remove paint on knobs without chemicals check out Familyhandyman.com/doors/how-to-remove-paint-from-hardware My favorite shops for Hardware:Hobbylobby.com Great selection, a lot of original styles and all at a great place. Search the site under knobs or pulls. In store, it seems knobs are always 50% off and always check for coupons. Etsy.com Etsy is a great source for vintage hardware, beautiful glass knobs and painted knobs. Shop and favorite your most loved sites so you can return again. One of my favorite shops on Etsy for hardware is Etsy.com/shop/Firstfinds Anthropology.com Really beautiful knobs but a little pricey. I like to shop discounted knobs when I am in the store and usually I use Anthropology only for pieces requiring a few statement knobs Best tip of the day…..for Screws to that are too short:One day I was looking for help in Home Depot because my knob screws were too short for my drawers, I was introduced to this product. Maybe I was late to the party, but I had never seen these! Now, I always keep these on hand. These are easily snapped to adjust to your needed length. Click here to see my simple tutorial on cutting these to size.
A drawer with too many holes or holes that are too big:For too many holes or holess that are too big for your screws, you will want to back fill all the holes with a good non shrinking wood fill that holds screws. Look for products like this, that say something like "strong nail & screw anchoring."
Add caption
Hardware that requires visible screws and does not come with matching screws:Now I did say I liked Hobby Lobby, and I do, but over the summer I ordered these pulls. They are actually a great style and with a great price. However, when I got them, I realized that while they fit the 3 inch hole span in my dresser, they were not designed for regular knob screws. These required 3 small screws to attach them from the front of the drawer and they did not come with any screws! I eventually found these screws would fit but…
But, the holes were too big so I had to fill them in.
Then, I needed more holes too, so I had to mark and drill them.
Then, the screws did not match the hardware so I had to touch them up with metallic bronze paint to get them to match.
But, in the end, I had a dresser all "dressed up" with hardware.
Ive given you some tips to adding legs to your furniture projects,
now I want to share different styles and types with you.
The 3 legs used on this corner unit
were salvaged from a little queen anne side table.
2012/02/shelf-chair-table-and-mirror-corner.html
NEW Lee Valley cast iron lions feet were added to this little shelf.
2011/01/daddys-cabinet-cabinet-make-over.html
Next an example of cast iron stove legs.
2011/02/twins-pair-of-black-night-stands.html The legs on this media console are sections cut from uprightson an octagon 70s side table.Most of you know the ones, next time you see onestop and grab it.
2012/02/beach-seaside-tv-console.html
Even a bed frame can have bun feet added to lift it up.
These bun feet if I recall correctly were found on a curb side love seat.
Just stop the car, jump out, unscrew each leg, and your on your way.
2011/08/queen-with-bun-feet-white-antiqued.html
I dont have one great source for legs, I simply watch for them every where I go.
An important thing to keep in mind when thinking about installing legs
is the weight of the furniture and the strength of your legs and install.
After selecting my graphic from the Graphic Fairy, I decided to transfer my image to my dresser using an overhead projector. If you do not have an overhead projector, another great technique I use for transferring large images is using blockposters.com to enlarge pictures. You can find a tutorial on that at the at the Graphics Fairy here.
To trace my images, I used a watercolor pencil. Find them in the artist section of Michaels or your favorite craft store. Choose a color closest to the color you will be painting with, so I used a white pencil. After painting and when dry, you can just wipe away stray marks with a damp cloth. After you sketch the image up. Gather your painting supplies for the detail work:acrylic paint (you could use latex or whatever else you are comfortable with but for detail work I usually choose acrylics), water to dampen brush and clean, paper towel to dab brush,paper plate for paint, wet cloth to fix any mistakes, and brushesHere is how I usually set up my plate to paint. I poured out some white which was my main color, some Vandyke Brown tint I had on hand to add with white for lowlights (or you could use a raw uber or darker brown acrylic) and my brushes.Because this was more detailed work I used an assortment of smaller sized straight brushes, round and liner brushes and a filbert brush.
A drawer with too many holes or holes that are too big:
But, the holes were too big so I had to fill them in.
Then, I needed more holes too, so I had to mark and drill them.
