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Painted furniture is hot. You can find anything from small night stands to beautiful armoires. These pieces of furniture are not only works of art, they are unaffordable to most people so if your pocket book can't handle the cost of these beautiful heirlooms, why not paint your own?
It's really not as hard as it sounds. Before getting started, you'll need to purchase an inexpensive piece of furniture at a garage sale. Set your top dollar at no more than $10.00. If you spend less, you'll be more inclined to love your finished piece and less likely to worry about mistakes. At this price, what have you got to lose?
The how-to decorative project described below was done with a $5.00 1970's vintage dark walnut laminate end table, not much to look at, but with lots of potential. Since step number two requires spray painting, you'll need to make sure you work in a well-ventilated area, first covering your work surface with a drop cloth or newspapers.
Supplies:
A base color of spray paint. 1-2 cans depending on the darkness of the furniture you are trying to cover. Semi gloss white was used for this project.
Green acrylic artist tube paint
One medium flat artist brush
One fine artist liner brush
A plastic plate to mix your paints in
Clear polyurethane or acrylic spray (semi-gloss)
Optional, ivy stencil and graphite tracing paper
A pencil
Procedure:
1. Remove any handles and hardware from the furniture.
2. Spray the entire piece of furniture with your choice of base color paint. (We used white.) You may need to apply a second or third coat, allowing to dry between coats. Make certain all of the previous color is covered.
3. Select a highlight color from your acrylic tube paints and squeeze a small amount onto your mixing tray or plate. (We used green.) Dip the flat brush into the paint and mix, dropping more water into the paint until it is almost the consistency of water color. Anywhere there is a recess on your furniture paint this color. For instance, the end table was painted with this color in crevices on the legs, on the bands around the legs that jutted out and around the edge of the top.
4. An ivy pattern was drawn onto a 11" long length of paper, then the pattern was traced onto the right front of the table using graphite tracing paper. However, if you are not artistically inclined, you can purchase an ivy stencil. Place the stencil on the front of the table and trace around the leaf and stem cutouts with a pencil directly onto the wood. Flip the pattern around for the left front of the table so that the left and right sides are semetrical. Trace the pattern onto the top of the table around the edge so that all four sides are covered with the pattern.
5. Using the same color paint, fill in each leaf and stem with solid green paint. Wait for it to dry.
6. Mix a tiny amount of white paint with some green paint. Use this color to paint in veins on leaves. Your brush will glide better if you first dip it into water.
7. For an optional added touch, you can brush a thin wash of gold on top of your ivy once the green has dried. Create the wash in the same way you created the green "water color" paint for your trim and crevices by thinning a amount of paint to water color consistency. Use the flat brush to brush the gold color over your leaves.
8. Once the ivy is dry, spray the entire piece with clear polyurethane or acrylic spray. You can protect your piece with a heavy coat of furniture wax.
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