Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Painted Furniture Made Easy

Painting existing or purchased furniture can be a great way to save money and get exactly what you want.  

In this case we used an IKEA Liatorp coffee table that we purchased for only $199.  The lines of the table were perfect, but the white color was not going to work.  The price of the table allowed us to spend more on other more important elements of the room.

 

After attending a Benjamin Moore color trends seminar for designers last spring, I learned about a great new paint that would be the perfect choice for this project.  

It's called Advance and it provides all of the great qualities of an oil based paint with a easy water clean up. 

We began our project by removing the glass from the table and setting it aside in a safe place.  We then sanded the table with a fine grit sand paper and wiped the table with a damp cloth to remove any sanding residue.
After the prep work we were ready to get started painting.  It is important to use a good quality brush when using oil based paints to insure a smooth and desirable finish.  A great trick to get the right amount of paint on the brush is to place a rubber band around the paint can.  This allows you to dip the brush in the paint and easily run the brush against the rubber band to remove excess paint.
The paint itself went on extremely well.  Any brush strokes created during the application smoothed out as the paint settled and dried.  In around two hours our first coat was completed.
We let the piece dry overnight and applied another coat which provided a uniform finish.

Paint is a great way to make a statement with furniture, but also can be used to unify various pieces in a room in order to give a cohesive look.  I hope you feel confident and inspired to try this paint on your own project.

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Luxe for Less


Would you believe you could take a $79 IKEA dresser and make it look like this?  Well that is exactly what you can do with a great new product called Overlays.  Overlays are fretwork designs that are made of composite material that can easily be applied to a variety of furniture pieces.  Overlays can be used to embellish new IKEA pieces or to "upcycle"an existing piece of furniture or a flea market find.  The results are impressive and the options are endless!




Check out this stylish copy of a classic Dorothy Draper Dresser.  The 1940's original (below) can cost as much as $4,000.  With a little time and effort you too can have the Luxe look for Less!