Nursery Reveal Part 3 – Furniture Finishes
Of course, the furniture was one of my favorite parts of creating Madison’s nursery. I love designing finishes for a piece of furniture so that it coordinates with the entire space. Whenever a customer comes into the shop to discuss their pieces, I always ask them about the whole room. I like to pull different elements from the space & apply them to each piece so that they feel truly custom. There are 3 major pieces of furniture in Madison’s space…a 12-drawer dresser, crib, & hutch. And there are 3 other smaller pieces of furniture…a coat rack, scalloped table & corner bookcase.
I chose to do 3 different “finishes” on the furniture, with 1 finish being layered & the other 2 being solid & simple.
The colors in Madison’s room are Pink (an understated pink with a hint of coral), Grey, Gold & White, with small touches of Black. I think every room should have a little bit of black. I feel it grounds the space & it’s that little touch of bold that makes things pop.
I made sure to balance the furniture in the space. I have the 2 layered finish pieces (the crib & the hutch) across from each other. And the pink dresser across from the 2 small pink pieces, and the window treatment that has a large splash of pink on the drapes. There are also pink, gold, grey, white & black touches distributed throughout the room to further balance the color palette.
So many of our customers ask if they can do more than 1 finish of furniture in a room…and the answer is yes! You just need to make sure you balance them, pull elements from the different finishes & distribute it throughout the entire room.
Let’s say you want to do a bright teal piece in a room that only has neutrals, then I suggest to pull in some pillows in teal, a big bowl on the table in teal, maybe some candlesticks or a piece of wall art with teal in it as well. Make sense?
Now…let’s talk about those finishes!
In the last blog post (which you can read here), I told you about our trip to LA for our baby moon; where I stumbled on the Restoration Hardware Baby & Child Showroom in Santa Monica. OMG…in love! I fell in leurve with the finishes, but of course, the pieces were a bit out of my budget. Of course, transforming is what I do, so I was so excited to try my hand at recreating the gorgeous “Antique Grey Mist” finish. Here is the sample laying on my finished, recreated piece ; )
After some trial & error, I came up with a pretty darn close to perfect match. And the best part, it was only 3 layers (plus my clear wax), as opposed to the 15 it took for the original! Time saver & money saver…woohoo!
So here are the steps…
- Get a solid coat of Pure White on the piece (mine took 2 coats).
- Do a dry brush of Paris Grey, very very lightly on the entire piece.
- Wait 24 hours (so the dry brush layer is completely set).
- Do a wash of Paris Grey on the entire piece.
- Clear Wax.
That’s it!!
I tried a lot of other things, I thought it was going to be more complicated, but it wasn’t. Easy peasy. For even more explanation, check out our YouTube channel for a video tutorial on my dry brushing & wash technique, which I’ll be posting tomorrow evening.
This piece originally had handles, so I sealed up the holes with Wood Filler, and drilled new single holes for knobs. I could not resist our Rhinestone Filigree Knobs in Gold. They’re my favorite…after our Elizabeth Taylor Knobs. I thought they were the perfect glam touch to the slightly rustic finish. I would call this look “Rough Luxe”.
The pink dresser, table & coat rack were done in a custom mix of Chalk Paint® with Primer Red, Scandinavian Pink & Pure White. I wish I could tell you the exact ratio…but I can’t…and it’s not because I want to keep it a secret. Because, as you all know, we don’t keep secrets at Suite Pieces. It’s because I just kept adding until I got what I wanted…lol. I will tell you, it’s somewhere around 12 parts Pure White, 1 part Primer Red, 1 part Scandinavian Pink.
Want to understand how to mix parts? Check out our YouTube video on easily mixing colors Chalk Paint® colors.
The dresser was done with 2 coats of our custom mix, lightly sanded for a super smooth finish (this is my favorite sand paper for that super smooth finish), then sealed with Clear Wax. The little side table and coat rack were finished with White Wax. I added a little Graphite wash detail to the edge of the scalloped table. I have contemplated doing Graphite stripes on the top, but I haven’t pulled the trigger yet ; )
The corner bookcase was painted in Pure White & can I be honest?? I didn’t seal it…eek! So here’s the story…Newsday featured this nursery in the Home & Lifestyle Section a couple months back (you can check out the article here). Let me tell ya…get a newspaper to come to your house & feature a room and see how fast you complete all the details. After Madison was born, between figuring out how to change, bathe & live with a baby, I wasn’t too concerned with how her room was functioning. Most everything was in place, but it wasn’t super organized or polished. The photo shoot forced me to style the room & organize all the gifts & goodies little girl was blessed to get during her first few months of life. I basically finished painting approximately 12 minutes before they came (I’m kidding…kind of) and waxing just wasn’t necessary for a photo shoot. (Also, hint hint, for any photographers out there, Annie’s paint has an amazing matte finish on its own and does wonders for photo shoots, giving off no glare!). Honestly, I just haven’t had time to wax it since. If it was something that was used a lot (like her dresser), then it would absolutely NEED to be waxed. It would be scuffed & mucked up by now if that was a piece that I really “used” every single day.
So there it is my friends. The secrets to my nursery furniture finishes! Let me know what you think and if you decide to dive into a nursery painting project! I can’t wait to hear all about it.
Until next week…when we talk about the closet. Another one of my favorite elements! I’m slightly obsessed with organization so it makes me giddy when I open the door and see all that storage, even though it’s a tiny space. I also had to make sure it had its own personality. I’ll tell you all about it next Thursday night. See you then!
