Our Aunt Katie and Uncle Jim have helped Cathy and I out countless times throughout our lives. This time, we want to give back to them by painting a beautiful antique bed they have. The money we make off the sale of this piece will go back to them as a small token of our appreciation for all their love and support.
We started painting this bed as a paint demonstration at the West Michigan’s Women’s Expo at DeVos Place in Grand Rapids, MI earlier this spring. The bed is solid walnut and mahogany and I loved the dark stained finish on it. We started with American Paint Company’s Rushmore. I wanted this color to peek through after I applied the 2nd color of Navajo White.
Then the bed sat for months while we took care of the daily tasks that kept creeping into our days and weeks and months. Finally, I was able to get to it. I was SO excited that day to bust out a paint brush; you have no idea!!
Navajo White being applied over Rushmore
This bed has the most amazing hand carved wood appliques!
I had so much fun watching the colors come through as I continued to wet distress all the beautiful hand carved features!
Hand Carved Details on the Headboard
I think it’s cool that so much intricate work went into the design of this so many years ago. I can even imagine how they carved all this without all the tools we have now.
I dropped it off to Not So Shabby where it’s awaiting its new owner
Just wanted to give a little heads up on a couple of new classes we just added to our schedule. I’m playing catch-up after all the mission trips and vacation time we’ve juggled the past few weeks.
I love this picture. It’s a group shot of all the kids the last night at the beach. Such a great time!!
Ok now… back to work ~ We still have some spots open for this Saturday’s Transform Your Find Chalk & Clay Furniture Painting Workshop
(preferred method, keeps everything streamlined and organized for us)
If you can’t register online, feel free to stop by our Jenison studio or call us at 616.669.1414.
Did you know…
Shizzle Design is a small family owned business in Jenison, Michigan. My sister Cathy and I work, paint, ship and teach our chalk and clay paint workshops out of the same space where we paint all our furniture. We are truly humbled to be known as a leader in the world of chalk and clay paints.
Cathy and I empower DIY’ers by sharing our years of experience. Stop in for paint and we’ll offer you honest and knowledgeable answers for all your chalk and clay paint needs.
Did you know we are not paid employees of American Paint Company? It typically takes me 10 hours to publish one of my blog posts. Everything from shooting the photographs, writing the content, editing, cropping… is given freely. The only way we make money is if someone purchases paint, workshops or painted furniture from us. If you enjoy the information you get in our website, please share and let us know.
We are so blessed to have taught people from all over the United States and Canada. Join us for one of our super fun hands-on chalk and clay paint workshops. Learn in our casual & relaxed environment. Click Paint Workshops to see a list of current classes offered.
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Shizzle Design is an Authorized Retailer for American Paint Company Paints. We offer a large inventory of chalk and clay paint and supplies at our Shizzle Design Paint Shop /Studio, 2018 Chicago Drive, Jenison, MI 49428. We also stock several other shops in the greater Grand Rapid’s area, to find out where, click LOCATIONS. Not from Michigan? No worries, we ship paint and paint supplies worldwide through our Online Shizzle Shop.
For more Chalk & Clay Painted Furniture ideas, tips, tutorials & inspiration, click:
I know, I know, I know… It’s been forever since I’ve posted any furniture renovations. For everyone who’s been asking, I didn’t fall off the edge of the earth, though I did fall a hundred times last month while portaging canoes through steep, rocky portages in the Boundary Waters of Northern Minnesota. I’ll share much more on that trip soon.
Ever since school’s let out, it’s been a whirl wind of activities at the Andrade ohana, everything from VBS to Mission Trips to a much needed family vacation in northern Michigan. I’ve got a ton of projects to share with you, there just aren’t enough hours in a day to get them all posted. Having sacrificed so much valuable time with my family over the past four years, I’ve vowed to straighten out my priorities and put my family first this summer. I’ve also been dealing with excruciating pain which is limiting how much I can get done each day. Sorry if I’ve disappointing anyone but these posts take me hours to put together and I need to focus my free time on my kids before they’re grown up and out of the house.
Gooseberry Falls State Park, MN
I’m back to work now trying to re-adjust to reality after being completely unplugged for a week. It’s tough, but I’m slowly re-adjusting. I seriously could be a permanent vacationer. It’s what I do best! If I could figure out a way to roll vacation into my job I would so if any of you have ideas for me, please let me know!!
So back to furniture… It dawned on me when I watched this buffet walk out the door last week that I had never written a blog post on how I painted it. It’s been a while now, so I’ll do the best I can to remember the details of how I did it.
It was a beautiful Basset piece in excellent condition when I picked it up. I paid a little more money to get it but I knew it would be a winner with such great lines.
For as long as I remember, I’ve used TSP to clean things prior to painting. It works great but Tri-Sodium phosphate is a strong chemical. It can cause problems if you accidentally swallow, breathe in, or spill large amounts of it on your skin. While I’ve cleared out other toxins from my work environment, I still continued to use TSP in our cabinet until recently when I discovered how awesome American Paint Company’s all natural cleaner worked.
Cathy tried APC’s Surface Prep Cleaner before I did and she was blown away with how great works. She also has Lupus and must be very careful of what she exposes her hands to. American Paint Company’s Surface Prep / Brush Cleaner is sold in concentrate so you only need a tiny bit of it to make a whole pail of cleaner. It’s a fantastic de-greaser, will remove years of oils, residue and furniture polish and is all natural! It also works miracles on cleaning brushes, cups and any other paint supplies. I can’t get over how such a small amount of cleaner in a pail of water can clean so many brushes after a workshop. It’s a pretty cool product and I’m ashamed it’s taken me so long to try it.
Ok, enough about cleaning ~ lets get to the fun part. For the base, I mixed American Paint Company’s Freedom Road with Wild Horses to create my own color; no guys ~ I didn’t measure. I don’t think I ever have. I paint like I cook, ‘cuz that’s how I roll. It’s easy like that. Doesn’t have to be perfection, just go with what you like. Sometimes I used Lincoln’s Hat, Sometimes Freedom Road, Sometimes a little bit of both.
The top had some marks and dark spots so I decided to some texture on the top.
Since I love the contrast of a darker, more textured top with a silky smooth base, I used a 4″ wide short bristled brush and stippled a custom mix of Lincoln’s Hat and Wild Horses in random directions. I love that American Paint Company Paints can be manipulated in so many different ways. The clay in their chalk and clay paint allows for so many different possibilities. I sealed the top with American Paint Company’s Dark Wax, the best dark wax EVA!!! I can’t find the picture that I shot of it and this buffet has already sold, but it was pretty much the same as the top I did on a recent set of French provincial dressers here.
I honestly can’t remember which colors I painted the insides of the cabinet and side panels, but I think it was a random mix of Home Plate, Rushmore and Smoke Signal. Knowing me, I most likely did a wash of Desert Cactus over it and I do remember pouncing American Grit into the clear wax while it was still wet on those lighter areas. For the rest of the base, I pounced black mica into the clear wax while it was wet. To be honest, it was a bit tricky to see how much black I was applying. You know how the wax makes the paint appear darker when it’s wet? Well, when my gray paint was darker, the black mica was really hard to detect. I had to wait until it dried overnight to see exactly how it turned out.
I could tell where I had started and where I had ended because it gradually got darker and darker. All I had to do to blend it in was take some clear wax with a clean brush and work some of it away. This method re-activates the wax so that you can manipulate it, in my case, I wanted to remove some of the black. You can also do this if you ever end up with too much dark wax in an area. After evening it all out, I painted the inside with Home Plate, sealing the inside of the cabinet with Topcoat. In the midst of everything else going on, I lost all my edited pictures on my computer so I’m using what I could find.
Finished Buffet
Hope you enjoyed this transformation. If you’d like to do a similar finish, here’s what you’ll want to pick up. You won’t use the whole quart for a piece this size, but I listed a quart if I felt you would need more than a sample size pot. Use your judgement based on the size of piece you’re going to paint.
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