Rose Gold, French Provincial Dresser – Eclat Designs By Crystin
This beautiful French Provincial Dresser was listed in the Denver Craigslist
“A stunning piece of eye candy that will have you enthralled, this french provincial dresser has been transformed into a stunning beauty with rose gold, pearl, and gold metallics that gives her a satin sheen that glows. A floral pattern in white catches the eye. If you love whimsy then you will be delighted by the harlequin pattern on the sides that are pearl color outlined with gold. This chest of drawers will give a generous amount of storage with 6 deep drawers. Details embellish every inch of this refinished furniture piece. It is also sturdy will last another century or more. An heirloom to pass down generations.”
My Louis XV French Provincial Chest Makeover
White-washing is basically applying glaze mixed with white paint to the surface of your wood furniture, giving your piece a two-tone effect.
The two tone effect is basically where the wood shows through the paint finish. You can achieve this result by liming, which can be picked up at your local hardware store, or paint alone can achieve this finish.
This effect ONLY works when you have unfinished wood which enables the paint to soak into the furniture.
White-washing can also work with oil based paint in combination with paint thinner. If you are working with vintage French Provincial you might run into a stumbling block like I did, where you have a really hard white melamine paint that is baked on. If you have patience you could strip off the paint.
Every dresser is different, some manufacture paint finishes are relatively easy to remove, while others are very difficult. If you have a white french provincial dresser that has a white finish, check out what I did with my painted french dresser:
I had a white dresser so I decided to fake the appearance of a white painted piece which was distressed showing the wood underneath. What I did to mine was started with a orange oil paint, and layered on color with slight distressing in between to produce a finish that looked to have layers of blues and creams and beiges to the finish.You can also achieve this look by mixing water based paint with glaze BUT, for most of my pieces I prefer to work with oil paint, rather than with latex, so this article discusses OIL rather than latex paint.
I would highly recommend Rust-Oleum’s oil paint in satin or flat finishes. Rust-Oleum’s satin oil dark taupe is one of the most frequent colors I use when I paint furniture.
Using a faux washing technique with soft butter yellow satin oil paint is one of the best colors to use on top of dark taupe. Additional oil colors such as the butter yellow can be purchased from specialty paint stores that tint oil paint. I use this technique on a lot of my projects. I have come to know that my local Home Depot paint store no longer carries this color. Here it is on Amazon.
Rust-Oleum 241238 Satin Enamels Spray, Dark Taupe, 12-Ounce
The other color which works well is Rust-Oleum’s color Fossil in latex . Again using white-washing techniques, Rust-Oleum’s oil flat paint tinted with an off white works extremely well in creating a washed Swedish finish.
Rust-Oleum American Accents Spray, Satin Fossil
I would suggest Sherwin Williams for oil paints, and you also can get virtually any color with Behr’s Paint and Primer in one.
Here are a few of my staples:
If you are working with latex paint a glaze can go a long way toward adding depth to your furniture.
Ralph Lauren Faux Technique Glaze
If you are working with oil, translucent finishes can be achieved by simply working with paint thinner and stippling it on to your furniture just like you would with glaze.
Ralph Lauren Faux Technique Glaze
Many french provincial reproduction furniture pieces have such durable finishes that they are almost impossible to chip, which is an excellent quality to have. If you are looking for a french dresser, and you want to make it over using a white washed appearance, I would highly suggest working with a dresser that has just a wood finish and no paint.
Typical white french provincial furniture pieces are often found with rock hard enamel paint. The challenge with these white finishes is they are especially hard to strip.
Many vintage manufactures have taken the enamel finish and combined them with chemicals such as melamine paint and baked them in large ovens, which gave them rock hard solid paint finishes. Stripping these finishes is next to impossible.
So what do you do if your original paint is white?
The dresser I painted was solid wood, but also had an original white finish, so I had to duplicate the look of wood with a coat of orange paint, so that when I distressed the furniture, it would give the appearance of some depth to the paint finish.
The next layer is an off white beige color, which I was able then to distress showing the orange.
After the distressing, I used a white oil paint diluted with thinner and dabbled it onto the dresser giving it a little bit of a textured look. Additional white washes were applied to give it an overall white effect. I did about 7 layers of additional washes until the entire piece was finished. Here was the transformation.
Painting Colorful Furniture- Two Decorating Options
Picture Credit – parinomercatoantiquario on ebay
French Provincial furniture is often very curvy and delicate that it is the perfect choice of furniture style to paint in a bright color.
French nightstands, cabinets and dressers can often be found at very reasonable prices that it makes redecorating very affordable. Bright colors do make dramatic statements, and often become the focal point of any room.
Accent furniture gives you the opportunity to change the look of your room without making a huge investment. Consider french provincial living room end tables, or french provincial tall bed side tables, as they are easy accessories that you can paint and then combine with throw pillows which easily tie in the bright colors.
Living room end tables and coffee tables do not have to match the existing furniture, and they also can be easily be repainted months later with ease.
20 Drawer Green Painted Cupboard From The Butler & The Chef
Option 1: Combining A Neutral Wall with Bright Furniture, and Accessories
Having a neutral colored palette will give your room a good base to work with. Neutral wall colors work with every color well, and give your furniture that perfect balance for colorful accessories and brightly painted furniture.
White, or light gray is a neutral wall color that will work with any furniture color and most any decorating scheme. The palest shades of gray works with every color, and the darkest of grays will add elegance against bright furniture.
Beige is one of the hottest selling colors for home sales as most people can see themselves living with a neutral beige. Not only is beige a color that is warm, it also works with every color on the color wheel. When investing in a sofa, it is smart to choose something with a simple earth tone which can be updated with throw pillows. This simple logic works the same with the paint color on your walls. Neutral colors give you the freedom to pick out strikingly colorful art paintings, or accessories.
Option 2: Using The Same Colors On The Walls As The Furniture
The easiest way of coordinating a room with a colorful piece of furniture is to take the exact color and add it into the wall color, or curtains or throw pillows. Paint can be matched with any fabric or accessory with today’s paint color matching technology. This is a very easy way of getting that “designer feel” in your home.
French Provincial Buffets
Bassett French Provincial Buffet
The French provincial style has stood the test-of-time. Today, like in the past, the French Provincial look is essential to competing the classic french country interiors, Swedish styles, and shabby chic styles.
Buffets have always been a must in every dining room but also have been re-purposed as entry way cabinets, tv cabinets and also re purposed bathroom sink vanities.
The classic buffet furniture consists of buffet tables, buffet cabinets, buffet hutches, buffet sets, and sideboards. Depending on what you may need for functionality each piece offers something different.
A hutch which comes with a buffet is perfect for china display and presentation. If you are a avid collector, hutches are the perfect solution, as you still have the extra cabinet storage in the buffet.
A buffet cabinet provides the storage space you may need to store glasses and extra dishes, while the top is a tabletop you could use for display or extra space to hold food when family comes over and the dining table is crowded. It is great providing extra food space, allowing you to feature your food instead of cramming it all on the table or ushering your company into the kitchen.
Buffet tables usually do not provide any storage, but are attractive in that it is an extra working table top similar to the buffet cabinet but without the storage. The table serves as an extra tabletop for entertaining, and also allows for decorative display in your dining room, living room, and kitchen.
French Provincial Nursery Furniture
This server from Laurel Auctions in Maryland would be the perfect baby changing table.
French Provincial Furniture has been a popular choice for baby and children’s furniture because it has delicate looks which suit children well. In fact, many dining room servers are being used as changing tables such as the above from Laurel Auction. Painted in a clean white, or gray-green for a french regal look, it would be the nicest changing table on the market.
Innovative moms are now thinking outside of the box for their needs and wants and are looking for alternative solutions for their growing children’s bedrooms. Vintage servers are getting custom cushions, and vintage french chairs are being upholstered and being used in various rooms of the house as baby outgrows them, instead of throw-away pressed board furniture that most department stores sell. Who has $12,000 to spend on a tall dresser?
Many of the upscale baby sites are asking thousands for their cribs, changing tables, dressers and armors, that are french provincial, why not paint your own vintage high quality furniture for less?
Buying second hand IS buying quality. Today’s furniture has slowly declined in quality. They often say, older is better, and that is very true when it comes to furniture. Even the upscale furniture stores are cutting corners when it comes to quality which is disappointing.
Mass production has made many companies profitable sparing the customer the quality of furniture that lasts. Today, dovetailing is a common quality find, but drawer slides once in wood, now are plastic or even metal. Solid wood furniture is being undercut inexpensive, mass-produced composites such as plywood, pressed wood, and particle board. Solid wood shrinks and expands with temperature changes, where as the composites don’t. Great looking, quality furniture doesn’t have to cost a fortune.
Do your shopping and consider something vintage or antique that will last you a lifetime. Buy something you really love and could be used in multiple rooms through the years. A good chair, table, desk, dresser can go a long way if you love and adore it~