This piece was brought home by my husband who found it on the curve. Real quick, shout out to my husband who continues to tell me I have no space for anymore furniture but keeps bringing me home pieces. Love his support! Anyways back to it. This piece was not in too bad of shape just needed some love.
I started with cutting the back board to open up the bottom shelf. I just used a very sharp blade and went over the line a few times till it cut through, it was just a very thin piece of particle board. Followed by a quick sanding with 80grit, 120grit and a 220grit sanding sponge to smooth out the ridges. Next this piece got a good cleaning with Dixie Belle’s White Lightening and a scuff sand with a 120 and 220 grit sanding sponge.
I loved the feet and layers on this piece, but knew I wanted to add some interesting details on the sides and front. I used an inexpensive stencil and Dixie Mud in white to create a raised stencil. I used painters’ tape to old the stencil in place and a spatula from Dixie Belle to apply the mud/’/. I waited 24 hours for the dixie mud to fully harden and then lightly sanded the mud smooth with a 220grit sanding sponge.
I applied a thin coat of Dixie Belle’s chalk paint in the color Muscadine Wine using an angle Wooster brush. These brushes are very inexpensive and will get the job done but if you have a few extra $$ get a better-quality synthetic brush. The paint was already dry to the touch when I was done, so I applied the second coat right after the first. Your dry time may vary due to the climate you are in but for the most part chalk paint dries very quickly. I love the muscadine wine color but felt it was just too plain for this piece.
I would have used black wax for this part, but I was very limited in my funds and supplies at the time. I did however have Dixie Belle’s chalk paint in the color caviar which is a jet-black color. So, I took the caviar and a cup of water and did a color wash on the entire piece. I dipped my brush in the caviar, getting a very little bit on my brush and then dipped it into the water. You do not want the brush soaked where you have water dripping everywhere, just enough to easily move the paint around. Make sure to have some lint free rags or shop towels handy. Work in small sections at a time starting from the top and wipe back as much or as little of the paint as you prefer. Wait at least 24 hours before doing a color wash because chalk paint is water based, you will reactivate your base color with the water and wipe it away with the color wash. The color wash gave the top such a beautiful look and stuck around the details of the raised stencil just like black wax would have, this created the perfect amount of depth I was looking for. I also painted the knob black. (Here is the video in which I actually got the idea to do the color wash in case you know, you’re in need of a visual aid, like I usually am LOL. “How to use a WASH technique with chalk paint,” by Kacha.)
The next day I came back and sealed the piece in Dixie Belle’s Satin Clear Coat. I love how this topcoat has the perfect amount of gloss to it and it also darkens the color of the paint slightly. I applied two thin coats and let dry for a few hours. I then completed the piece with gold gilding wax (my favorite part). I really tried to accent some of the best parts of this piece with the gilding wax, the boarder around the top, parts of the raised stencil, the three layers down at the bottom and around the feet.
And there you have it, my first time doing a raised stencil and color wash. This piece was fairly simple to transform and yet the structural details of it is so much more pronounced.
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