How do you paint furniture in the shabby chic style?
Answers:
Just a little advice that I learned the hard way. I like to find old furniture, strip the paint off, re-sand, seal and paint in acrylic on it (in a technique called Norwegian Rosemaling). I found a beautiful old table that was headed for the trash and worked for days getting it to the bare wood. Then I spent two weeks doing the beautiful scroll and flower work on top. Everything went perfectly until I put the polyurethane on it and it "fish-eyed" meaning it formed perfect circles all over the finish that refused to take any polyurethane or varnish. I was sick! All that work. After a lot of research I found that if someone had previously used a spray furniture polish, the oil would have penetrated the wood and therefore, the urethane would not adhere even tho the acrylic did. As you know, many acrylics dry dull and require a clear coat for sealing. So the piece was ruined. You can use oil based paint and probably not have that problem. I just prefer the pretty colors of latex or acrylic (water based) paint. Polyshield is the prettiest clear coat I have found for my furniture art and I got it at Sherwin Williams. Good luck!
Other answers:
well you usually begin with a primer and since you are painting wood i suggest you use an oil based primer rather than a latex one.....hope this helps
well you usually begin with a primer and since you are painting wood i suggest you use an oil based primer rather than a latex one.....hope this helps
Go to Home Depot, Lowe's, ACO, or your local hardware or paint store; find an antiquing kit. They work great! There are even kits for the crackel look! I hope this helps!
I'm no expert but I did paint two tables that came out great by sheer accident! They were a light maple wood and I hated them. One day I got out those little craft paints that come in 3 or 4 inch plastic bottles that my son used to paint with. I poured white, and different shades of blue and green in an aluminum pie plate and just started painting. I used light strokes and didn't try to blend it or make it look smooth. Just ran my brush straight across the table. If I got too much color in one place and wanted it to look weathered and old there I added white. Some of the wood showed thru but very little. Practice on a piece of junk wood. Have fun.
For Shabby Chic, I think a crackled lok goes well. I would paint it an offwhite color and then you put the crackle stuff on and then paint white over it and it does it's thang and turns out white with offwhite cracks. it looks like peeling paint, which is VERY shabby chic! You can also do turquoise and white/offwhite which looks great too. if you want it smooth, I'm sure you can put a clear coat of polyurithane on top of the finished project.
I painted an armoir with a light cream basecoat and then mixed a light, celery green with a glaze and rolled in on top of that. While still wet I took a stiff clean dry brush and ran it down the armoire. This allowed the cream to show through and then I used a clear varnish on top to seal it. I like it. I am going to use a wooden door for a headboard and use crackle paint. It's pretty easy to do and comes with directions. It doesn't have to be perfect because that is the point. :)