The chairs are very good quality and made of solid hardwood, so painting them to update the look was a great idea. Furniture painting is a great way to extend the life of your furniture and much more cost effective than purchasing new. We also recovered all of the seats in a very durable upholstery fabric. The finished product is a beautiful dining room with a pop of color.

It is so amazing how furniture painting can make such a dramatic difference. Everytime I paint a piece of furniture, whether it be for my store, my own home or for a client, it never ceases to excite me. I love watching pieces transform right before my eyes. It is especially gratifying when I paint a piece of furniture for a client and I see their eyes light up when they return to the store to pick it up!

Furniture painting is so fun!! Distressing furniture, beating it up, staining, waxing and antiquing it to create a shabby chic finish is even more fun! 

Below is a dining chair that we recently created an adorable ruffled slipcover for. If  this chair doesn’t say Shabby Chic, I don’t know what does!

In the photographs below see how painting the furniture, that was originally for a little girl, changes her space from an adolescent bedroom into a hip retreat for a teenager.

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

This antique desk has such beautiful lines and great detail. Unfortunately it has been abused over the years and was badly stained, mainly on the top as shown, but in numerous other spots as well. The solution? Paint! Furniture painting is one of my favorite things to do!! It is so amazing how paint can transform a piece of furniture. I know a lot of antique enthusiasts hate painted furniture, but I love it. A fresh coat of a bright paint can really make details pop, especially if distressing is done in all the right places.

This piece was first primed with four layers of a white paint and then the top coat, a light grey, finished it off. Once it was good and dry the desk was distressed along the sharp edges of the top, legs and drawers and of course on the carved detail that decorates this piece. Sanding these places with a heavy grit sand paper allows the color of the wood, as well as, the white primer to show through adding character to the grey finish. The knobs, original to this desk, were also painted. I chose a black paint for the hardware, which I think really adds a pop of color to this fabulous desk! To complete the look and protect the gorgeous new finish I polished it with a nice coat of wax.

I recently picked up this stunning desk at an estate sale. It is truly a well crafted piece of furniture and in it’s day it must have been gorgeous. The different types of exotic wood, the colors and all the carving on this desk made it a tough decision when it came to painting it, even though I am almost always a huge fan of furniture painting. I hesitated in covering up all those gorgeous wood grains, but the thought of restoring it was way to much for me to handle.

The top of the piece was badly stained, the feet had some dings in them, there were light scratches in numerous places, and years of use in addition to layers of wax had formed a film of gunk. I don’t have nearly enough patience to do all the necessary time staking and labor intensive procedures needed to make this piece shine in all it’s original glory, so instead, a fresh coat of white paint does the trick.

After putting just one coat of primer on this desk I knew I was going to love it! I think the white makes all of the detail really pop. A little light distressing and the original knobs that remain unpainted break up all the white and add a bit of interest.

The windows were in need of a serious makeover. My client has a modern, clean line style that is simple, so the curtains needed to reflect that. We went with a tapered box pleat valance and we were all very pleased with the results. My client and her husband saw this room transform into a place that reflected their taste; a room they could call their own. It’s amazing how little changes like this can turn a house into a home.