I recently purchased some beautiful unfinished furniture from a French Furniture manufacturer that I will be painting in a Provençal Style.
This dresser is solid mahogany with wonderful hand-carved detail, as shown here.
I knew that I wanted to paint it French Linen, but perhaps a lighter shade. French Linen is a beautiful neutral grey, but I wanted a lighter version so I tested variations of it mixed with Old White on these colors boards and decided I liked a mix of half of each. (When using a custom color, make sure you mix enough to cover the whole piece!)
I first painted the entire piece Old White, so that when I distressed it the Old White would show through (a favorite technique of mine). I used Annie's small paint brush for this job to make sure to get into the detail (it's perfect for this!).
Here's the dresser with its first coat of Old White. As you can see, I paint right in my shop - no odor!
Then I painted it with a second coat of the Old White/French Linen mixture and distressed it down (with a 220 grit sandpaper) to the first coat of Old White for a weathered look.
After waxing and distressing, I buffed it lightly with a 600 grit sandpaper to achieve that wonderful patina.
And here is the finished piece!
Happy Painting!
Rachel
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