Weathered French Buffet That Gave Me “FITS”

If you have ever lived in the South then you know the term “fits” (meaning: gave me trouble).  There is no other way to describe this piece of furniture for me.  I literally spent the week painting it because every incarnation didn’t look right, until now.  As a reminder, here is the before.

It had that wood finish that was very popular on these pieces in the 1970’s.  A cream colored spray finish with airbrushed gold accents.  Not the look I am going for.

The first time I painted it, I painted it a beautiful soft blue thinking I wanted to give it a Wedgewood look with Wedgewood blue and white accents on the carving.

However, when I walked in the room with it blue it just grabbed my eye.  I don’t want to have a wow focal point in this room.  I want the eye to travel around the room without anything jarring.  So, I decided to paint the doors and drawers a soft cream to try to tone down the blue.

I didn’t like that either.

Then I painted it a dark taupe thinking that would do the trick.  When I was finished with that I felt it still was lacking, so I turned to my friend Miss Mustard Seed White Wax. Oh how I love Miss Mustard Seed White Wax.

I waxed it and loved the effect it had on the flat wood but it didn’t catch the carving like I had envisioned.

I then turned to my other BFF as of late, Gilder’s Paste.  I highlighted all of the carving with the Gilder’s Paste.  I finally achieved the look I wanted.  After it had cured over night I finished it off with a coat of clear wax and that brought out all the richness in the wood.

Now, I adore it.  I have that weathered wood look that I love and the carving detail is beautiful.  Here are some lovely photos up close.

If you are someone that likes the low-down, nitty gritty details on how to achieve this look…here you go.

After painting twice I finally settled on painting the whole thing with Martha Stewart’s Vintage Decor Paint in Tilled Soil.  It was a little darker brown than I wanted so I added just a touch of cream paint until it looked like a dark latte.

I know…it doesn’t look like the under color is in the brown family.  Trust me.  It will all transform with white wax.

After it was dry I used Miss Mustard Seed White Wax on the whole thing.  I didn’t sand before because I wanted the wax to “grab” the surface a bit.  I white waxed the whole thing.  This is what white wax looks like when you put it on and wipe it off.  You simply brush it on (you don’t have to go this thick…I had deep carving in this piece) and then just use a paper towel to wipe it off until you get the effect you want.  This is a different piece of furniture, but the same effect.  Before-During-After

I let the white wax cure over night.  Then I came back the next day and added some white gilder’s paste to the raised areas.  I find working with gilder’s paste is a lot easier than trying to go in with a brush and highlight the details.  If you haven’t used it before, it is really user friendly.  I just rub my finger in the guilder’s paste (sometimes you have to wet it) and then just take my finger and run it over the areas I want to highlight.  It gives you a lot of control.  I used it on the hardware also.  It dries and won’t rub off.

 

Finally, once everything was totally dry and cured, I sanded it before waxing with a clear wax.  I took off some of the finish in some areas to expose the “latte” color underneath.  Once I put the clear wax on, it really gave depth to the piece.  I really love the worn look I was able to achieve by doing this.  I used the same technique on my kitchen table and have included a picture of it so you can see the finish can be consistent.

Here’s my kitchen table.

Thanks so much for stopping by!  I hope you try this technique on something because it ends up being so rich.

Hope you had a great weekend!

Nancy

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