For people who paint furniture, the loyalties to their products and application techniques run deep. Those who rep for Annie Sloan Chalk Paint or Miss Mustard Seed’s Milk Paint might as well be the Bloods and the Crips.
But my personal aesthetic favors a simple, clean finish rather than the distressed, chippy look that has made these brands famous.
Now, you can use both of those products and apply them in way that doesn't read "rustic farmhouse." But even if I were to forego weathering the finish or applying a dark wax to highlight nuances in a piece of furniture, the price point for these boutique paint brands and tools is significant.
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A quart of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint will set you back almost $40 and MMS Milk Paint is $29. To keep things in perspective: That’s about five cans of Rustoleum Oil Rubbed Bronze spray paint (one of my other beloved products). I could spray paint so much ugly hardware in my home with that money!
This frugal gal won’t be rumbling in the streets to represent anything that pricey. So, how have I been painting the furniture in my home?
With simple, $8 Color to Go quarts from Sherwin Williams.
That’s right, I’m flashing up a Sherwin Williams "Cover the Earth" gang sign… which you can imagine is super complicated and my fingers and cramping.
Let me tell you why I love these inexpensive sample quarts:
1. The color options are virtually limitless.
2. The coverage is amazing and the finish has only a very mild sheen.
3. It’s surprisingly durable.
4. And for surfaces that need extra durability, it takes wax well.
A very light sanding, a wipe down and three coats of paint are all it took to get Charlie’s headboard and dresser looking fresh.
The dresser was already painted and in Hank’s room previously. It has withstood three years of wear beautifully. The color is Sherwin Williams Regatta.
The top of the dresser (a $20 craigslist find) is actually a walnut-look laminate, which I opted not to paint.
This hand-me-down Bombay Company accent table, however needed a painted top to cover years of scratches and coffee cup rings.
For this piece, I used the same process: a light sand, wipe down and three coats of paint. The color is Sherwin Williams Tricorn Black.
But the finish was not proving durable. Check out the rings left by the felt bottom of my lamp. This table was a great candidate for wax.
There are lots of furniture wax and brush options out there for painted wood, but I opted for Minwax’s Paste Finishing Wax and this brush from Brossum. This wax is light pink/tan, so it's probably not the best choice for a light wood or white-painted surface, but for my black table it was great.
First, I gave my side table a very light sand and wiped off all excess dust with the nastiest rag I could possibly find, as documented for posterity above. Next, I used a plastic spoon to scoop some wax from the tin on to a paper plate (very sophisticated techniques, here), so that I could work the wax into the brush on the plate.
Once the brush had a nice coat of wax worked into the bristles, I applied a thin coat of wax in a circular pattern on the top of the table.
I then wiped off any excess wax with my rag, waited 10 minutes and applied another coat of wax in the same fashion. Finally, after waiting an hour, I buffed the waxed area with my rag going in the same direction as the wood grain.
The surface was hard after 24 hours but I waited a full 48 before placing things back on the table to ensure it had fully cured.
Et voila! An inexpensive way to paint your furniture with paint samples and, if needed, ramp up durability using reasonably priced and readily available products.
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