A Playful Dresser

This antique dresser was probably just wood at one time but over the years it had been painted a few different shades.  When I bought it, it was a pale peachy beige and the inside of the drawers had been wallpapered in a beige and peach floral.  I have removed wallpaper from walls before but I had forgotten how much work it can be.  I might have reconsidered buying the dresser if I had known how much time I would need to remove it.  I thought about just painting over it but the wallpaper wasn’t in great shape and the corners weren’t very well done.  Because the dresser is on the small side, I just couldn’t see an adult using it so I painted it with a child in mind.

 

It gave me a chance to use FrogTape Shape Tape which gives a nice clean edge and a playful look.  I  admire the work of Poppyseed Creative Living who uses this tape a lot in her designs.  She has been an Annie Sloan Painter in Residence and has many great pieces.

The white looks pure white but it is actually a 50/50 mix of AS Pure White and Old White.  You can see that I got the wallpaper out of the drawers and painted them, as well as placing a bright orange wrapping paper inside.  The turquoise is AS Provence which is a lovely saturated blue/turquoise.

 

The antique-looking porcelain knobs are from Lee Valley and are a nice touch without being too feminine.

 

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Just for Kids

I recently painted a dresser for a 2-year old named Henry who was changing rooms because of his new little brother, Alfie.  Aren’t those cute names?  Henry’s parents had me paint this dresser for his nursery 2 years ago.  It’s an old farmhouse style  that they wanted in red:

They are keeping it which doubles as a change table for baby Alfie and bought a small tallboy for Henry.

It’s maple and very heavy with solid wood drawers that weigh a ton.  I covered the whole thing with a coat of shellac because I have learned that that reddish stain used before poly finishes bleeds through paint, even latex.  Henry’s mum wanted 3 colours: navy, yellow and cream.  I was influenced by the wonderful furniture painted at Poppyseed Creative Living ( she is very talented) and created a colour-block effect.

The colours are Annie Sloan’s Arles, Cream and Napoleonic Blue.  I copied the colour-block on a few of the knobs and added the larger red knobs painted in Burgundy for an extra punch.  The hardest part was getting the lines straight.  I started with the drawers in the dresser and taped through the middle of the drawer where the holes are.  Then I lined up the lines on the side.  This required a measuring tape and marking with a pencil.  I do not have a straight eye, so I will tape on a slant without markings. When using light and dark colours, I would recommend painting the light one first then the dark overtop.  With this design there is a fair amount of overlapping.

In retrospect, I might have mixed the Arles with English Yellow to get less gold but I am happy with the result.  It has a wax finish which I like the look of better than poly and which is durable after it is cured, especially on something like a dresser.  I tend to use poly on table or desk surfaces but have found that wax  has worn well on all the pieces that are in my house.

 

Linking up with:

http://www.patinaparadise.com/2015/12/fridays-furniture-fix-20.html

Making Broken Beautiful | No. 18

http://www.mccallmanor.com/link-party/your-inspired-design-16/

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http://www.sadieseasongoods.com/snickerdoodle-sunday-link-party-112-end-of-year-announcement/

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Painting with English Yellow

 

 

This is the first time I have actually painted something yellow.  I love all those mustard yellow dressers one sees on Pinterest but for some reason I have never actually used the colour.  Annie Sloan has 2 yellows in her colour chart, Arles, which has a gold tone and English Yellow, which is a very bright yellow.  Both can be mixed with white or Old White to create different shades.  I painted this antique dresser in Old White and an English Yellow/Old White mix.  I was trying to get a pale lemony tone.  As you can see in the pix, I imagined this as a baby dresser because this style is so popular at the moment.  When I had my children in the days before ultrasound, everyone painted babies’ rooms yellow because the colour was gender-neutral.  This dresser, perhaps because of the style, comes across as more feminine.

I am happy with the result but in retrospect, I wish I had added a bit of Arles in with the English Yellow.  English Yellow has a green undertone which comes out even when mixed with Old White.  I don’t like it much and wish it was a bit more buttery.

This dresser also had a hinged mirror but the frame was a bit warped.  I decided to remove the mirror from the stand part and from the frame. I will be re-purposing the frame in another project.

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http://linda-coastalcharm.blogspot.ca/2015/09/show-and-share-no-280.html

http://www.mccallmanor.com/

http://thecuratorscollection.com/

http://thirtyeighthstreet.blogspot.ca/

http://www.thepainteddrawer.com/2015/09/17223.html

http://www.patinaparadise.com/2015/11/fridays-furniture-fix-17.html

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http://www.dwellings-theheartofyourhome.com/2015/11/amaze-me-monday-138.html

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Creating Texture with Dry Brushing

This antique dresser had several coats of paint on it when I bought it.  Its last coat was actually a very pretty turquoise enamel that was chipping everywhere.  If I had had some AS Provence on hand, I probably would have painted it with that colour.  Instead I chose more neutral colours.  After a lot of sanding to even out the chipping, I painted it in Old Ochre and used a Graphite wash on the top and on the drawers.  I wanted to use black knobs so the Graphite seemed a good choice.

After applying the wash, I wasn’t completely happy with the result probably because the dresser has a lot of flat surfaces and not many places for the wash to settle into.  So, I dry brushed over it a few times.  Dry brushing adds texture and layers of colour but you have to be very stingy with the paint.  First, you start with a dry brush ( surprise, surprise) but this is not something I have actually done in the past.  You lightly dip the brush into the paint then brush most of it off.  Then you start to feather the paint onto the surface; it’s amazing how much paint is actually on the brush.  I did about 2 more layers of the Graphite then 2 layers of the Old Ochre on top of that.  The result was very effective and gives the dresser an aged look without dark wax or distressing.  I painted the inside of the drawers in Burgundy because they had old paint splatters in them.  You can’t see the colour very well in the photos but they contrast beautifully with the outside.

In general, you shouldn’t paint the sides of drawers because if they are sticky it will add another layer to the drawer and the paint may scratch.  However, these drawers are on the loose side, so I painted the sides as well as the inside.

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Wax Resist Distressing

This dresser make-over actually started with the knobs. I was given 6 of these marbled Anthropologie knobs and knew that I would use them someday on a child’s or baby’s dresser as they remind me of gum balls.

The dresser itself is perfect for a baby’s room as it is the correct height for a change table.  I wanted to paint it in Old White with some blue peeking through to match the knobs.  The blue is actually a mixture of Aubusson, Florence and Greek Blue.  I painted the whole thing with one coat of the blue and then decided to try wax resist.  I paint a lot of furniture with two-tone washes but I wanted something different. I used candle wax on all the carved areas then painted a coat of Old White on top of that.  All the other areas have 2 coats of the white.  When it was dry, I sanded back the Old White to reveal parts of blue.  It mirrors the marbling of the knobs and looks a bit like crayon or stripes.  It is both contemporary and antique at the same time.

I also stenciled dragonflies in the drawers to add to the whimsical aspect of the piece and I used MMS Hemp oil to revive the dry wood inside the drawers.

The dresser has a matching round mirror but I think it looks a lot better without it.

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