A Sunday Makeover

It is the first wet dark day we have had for ages so autumn is approaching. What better way to spend the day than painting a little piece of furniture, I only had some small chalk paint sample pots but the piece was small and people that know me will know when an idea strikes I have to go at it straight away, I won't let a little thing like not having all the supplies stop me! I also wanted to do a practice run writing with gold paint on wood. I had a cheap set of drawers that were perfect for a trial piece. Firstly as in all good makeovers I removed the knobs, then I painted it roughly with red Annie Sloan chalk paint, I had so little left in the jar that I could not cover it fully but I only needed it on the edges really. unfortunately I had this red paint on when I took the first photo so its not an exact " Before" picture.

                                                                         BEFORE

                                                                  da dum (the drum roll)
                                                                          AFTER

Then I painted it with Annie Sloan graphite with some Liberon "Vegetable Black" pigment added, although after sanding it seemed more graphite than Black,  later I added the pigment again to the wax which gave me the finish I was looking for.

Here are the paints, pigment, wax and ink I used.

Now for the gold letters, I was pleased with how easy it was to use the gold ink on the wood, The first one I cut a stencil for but after that I found it easier to do it free hand, if I had chalk it would have been better I could have written it in chalk and then painted over it, but I had no chalk so I need to put it on my shopping list. I thought the gold was far too shiny and new looking for the distressed look I wanted but that could be fixed later.

In the picture above I have waxed the edges and between the drawers with clear wax that I added black pigment to..

"Bits" annoyed me as the "i" was not at the same slant angle as the other letters, this is the one I cut the stencil for, you can see as you go down the drawers my writing was improving.

 

 So after the wax and allot of elbow grease I have a new very distressed looking drawers. I have to get four new knobs and then its all done. I may revisit the letters again as I feel they would look better in a gloss paint, but this will do for today. Now its time to put the feet up and catch up with the Sunday papers.