Latest Custom Project

Besides being your one-stop-shop for all things furniture & design, especially our beloved Matte Finish Paint by Jolie, here at Suite Pieces, we also do lots of custom work…mostly for designers and our very busy customers who don’t have time to do their own pieces ; ) I feel as though I never share these projects with you! So tonight, I’m all by my lonesome…hubby is in the city celebrating the season with colleagues and I felt inspired to share…so here goes!

This guest bedroom is getting an update. This VERY shiny brown dresser no longer jives with the beautiful grey walls, black & linen bed and grey toned bedding. She needed an update!

Here is the inspiration piece. It’s a designer piece for sure…coming in at $1700 and half the size of the piece we’re working on. Now you all know we can recreate this for a fraction of the price…especially if you’re doing it yourself ; ) We didn’t want our final outcome to be quite as rustic as the inspiration piece, we wanted it slightly more refined…and remember, inspiration is just that…you draw from it. It doesn’t always have to be exact…however, I think we came pretty close!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s how we did it. We base coated in a mixture of Graphite & Antique White. I didn’t measure exactly…I just made sure to mix enough to do a base coat. After you’ve been doing this for a while, you start to get a feel for how much paint you’ll need. The ratio was probably 5 parts Graphite to 1 part Antique White.

 

After the base coat dried, I did a dry brush of Linen. Dry brushing is one of my favorite techniques, along with a wash technique, but it can come out really BAD if you don’t practice. Here’s proof. This was my first ever dry brush attempt. It’s still sitting in my basement and I have no idea what to do with it. It hasn’t spoken to me yet to tell me what it wants to be… It’s actually a really cute set, with a vanity too. What are your thoughts? What would you do with this piece? See…it’s OK to make mistakes, don’t be afraid…it’s just paint!! I have made MANY mistakes…but I always try to learn from them ; )

Anyway, if your brush it too loaded up with paint, you can get streaks, and see all the brush strokes. And when you do just 1 color with so much contrast, like Old White & Emile like our BAD Dry Brush example…it can just look awful.

Here are my tips for successful Dry Brushing:

1. It’s called dry brushing for a reason…your brush should be very DRY! That means you need to load your brush with paint, and then OFF load before you touch your piece. Take most of the paint off before you start.

2. Be patient…dry brushing can take lots of dips into the can to get the perfect effect. Since your brush is so dry, you’re only going to cover a very small area at a time, so you need to repeat many times to do a large surface…like the dresser I worked on today.

3. LAYER! When dry brushing, it’s best to layer several colors on top of each other so that you can blend everything together. The last layer on this piece was Cocoa.

4. Dry brushing really works best on pieces that have raised detail. Like this mirror. The paint catches on the high points and highlights the detail.

After layering all my colors on this piece, I lightly sanded everything for a super smooth finish (that’s a tip!) and then finished up with 2 coats of clear wax on the top. I did the same process on the hardware (which I did remove for this project) and tomorrow I’ll be going back to add a touch of gilding wax to the hardware for a little glitz.

And that’s it! One of my favorite techniques…dry brushing. Want a demo?? We’re having a Winter Wonderland Late Night Shopping event tomorrow. We’ll be demoing this technique for anyone coming out to visit us! Along with refreshments, discounts & a raffle too. Don’t miss out! We’ll be open till 9.

Oh, and don’t forget about the promotion we’re running for December! You can read all about it HERE.

Hope to see you soon!