French FEED

French FEED

French Provincial Tables

Powell Furniture makes a stunning mahogany game table in a sophisticated style that would look stunning in any living room. Forget about the tv, and get some quality time in with the family with this game table.

The table features Okume mahogany veneers with lovely hand carved cabriole legs and skirts. The game top flips which allows you to either play chess or checkers or backgammon.

The table includes game pieces for chess, checkers, and backgammon and a shaker cup and dice.  The table includes 2 drawers for storage of game pieces and comfortably seats four.

Leg assembly is required on this table.  Over the years of painting tables I have only come across one table which the legs were permanently attached.  Having the legs come off allows you to get the table into any room with ease.

The only complaint I have seen with this table is the paint finish can be chipped easily. J. Welter left a comment that it was scratched within a week of purchasing the table.  Perhaps the finish is painted, instead of stained.

You may want to put a coat of polyurethane on the table so the finish isn’t ruined over time.  You can buy polyurethane in a spray which produces an incredible finish than painting on the sealant with a brush.

Spray small coats one at a time after each coat dries, and your table will not chip.

  • William Alexander –Powell Mahogany Game Table with Game Pieces – This table, assembled, is both quite large and quite lovely. Assembly could not be easier, using only one set of provided screws and plastic washers. One washer was missing from the bag, but they are easily available for pennies from any hardware store, so that was not an issue for me at all. But, this table will come in a very large and well-packaged box. The box will not fit into a standard car for disposal, so be aware that you will need to chop the box up for a trash can or hauling off unless you have a very large automobile or truck. There is no drawer assembly, which is very welcome. The table itself is large and quite heavy, so moving it is not a “one man job.” You will need to move it to the place where you want it and assemble it there and save yourself some back trauma.  The other little quibble I have is that the game board was not a 100 percent perfect “fit” for the recessed square in the top of the table, meaning mine fit in very, very snugly. It will not be easy to remove and “flip” to the backgammon side if I will be able to remove it at all. You also get a set of backgammon counters, a dice cup with dice (but no doubling cube), and a set of standard chess pieces in black and clear plastic. Nice to have, to be sure, but I have a set of non-plastic wooden chessmen that look MUCH better on this table than the plastic pieces. Also, some kind of “special” deluxe chess set or backgammon set of size would also better accent the look of this piece.  The result? A truly beautiful table that adds to a more traditional room decorated in shades of cream, light brown, burgundies/reds, some shade of soft gold, or off-white. It is indeed a stately piece of furniture, and not for the kids to play on, to be sure. I also notice that the promo picture shows full glasses on it. I think that would be a very, very bad idea without coasters.  So, minor details aside, I love this table and I am looking forward to having it in my home for many years.

 

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French Patio

There is nothing like finding old style French Provence furniture to decorate your patio with.  Old style french furniture often contained both iron and wood.

Folding furniture has been around for centuries.  In fact, Egyptian furniture included folding stools and couches.

Campaign furniture was originally designed for the British army in the late 1700’s which could be taken with them on the battle front.

The furniture was easy to fold up, broken down and set back up in an instant.  Folding furniture is perfect for any home because this style of furniture can be stored easily.  Many people face the situation that their iron furniture cannot be easily stored in their garage, and often times what happens is the iron is left out to face the harsh weather through the winter time.

Fold-able patio furniture makes sense.  Many people choose this type of furniture in apartment buildings with balconies because the furniture can be folded up if they want the floor space to work on a project.

The folding patio furniture has also been photographed inside homes instead of outside on the patio.  As more people are falling in love with primitive decorating, such as stone walls, rustic limed wood flooring, and distressed paint finishes, many people are turning to these rustic pieces to finish off their old world looks inside their homes.

Slatted cafe tables and chairs have been typically left in its natural state, although they can be painted to match your coordinating furniture.  Wood and iron have been the number one choice when it comes to patio furniture.

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French Provincial Dining Chairs

French-Provincial-Dining1

Laurel Crown is known for their authentic antique reproduction furniture. This lovely french provincial chair is reproduced from designs originating from the countryside of Southern France.

This chair is made out of a solid pine wood frame, and beautifully aged producing a layered patina.

Laurel Crown produces these fabulous finishes by layering on paint which is then scraped and sanded by hand. The chair has a caned seat and hand-chiseled floral carvings in the front.

This chair is not only comfortable but durable to last years.

Belgian Pearls Blog posted a wonderful picture of a over sized distressed dining room table with a countless distressed french chairs with lovely painted finishes. The table was massive and was worn and rustic.  The two combinations of painted french chairs and planked wood worked together nicely.

French Provincial Dining Chairs From Belgain Pearls Blog

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When To Prime Furniture, When To Sand: My Restoration Learning Lessons

Lacquered French Desk From Ralph Lauren

Priming and Distressing Mistakes are the number one thing I see most people mess up when they paint french provincial furniture.  (I have made my share of mistakes in the past, and eventually came to learn the tricks of the trade. Mine was by trial and error, perhaps you can learn from my painting mistakes.) Black has become tremendously popular because it simply looks fantastic as the years go by.  You can never go wrong with classic colors such as cream, black and gray.  Here are a couple tips to keep in mind when painting black furniture. 

DO NOT use white primer under black paint.  I see this mistake A LOT.

Do not use white primer under red paint, or any other darker paint color used as a top coat.

White primer is certainly fine under lighter colors such as yellow or cream, and lighter blues, but not under dark paint colors.

When you see this happen, or you did it yourself, you either faced two situations……….

1.  You only had a choice of only primers from your local hardware store.  There are really two primers on the market.  White, and tinted white, which is really Gray.

Painting walls and painting furniture require two totally different approaches.

For walls, it is recommended that you prime, especially if you have shiny walls, or oil walls, as latex paint will not stick to the finish.

 

Do You See The White From Distressing?

When I first started painting I loved black.  My phases went from loving mahogany to black, and now to gray, and I have painted everything in between.  Furniture doesn’t necessary need a primer if you are willing to work hard sanding the piece of furniture before you decide to paint.

In some ways, this is better than adding a primer, especially when you are adding color, because it gives you room to distress the piece of furniture, which gives a piece of furniture more depth to show through.

2.  When you see dressers which are darker in color, or black with white showing through, it might because the dresser was white to begin with.  Perhaps the dresser was a vintage dresser with the typical white and gold finish.  Henry Link Furniture, Thomasville, and Dixie especially have heavy white paint which is often oven baked on.  Striping this paint off is especially hard, so many people just opt to paint over it.  They then go to distress it, and the sand down to the original white finish.

There are two ways around this…… 

Mayfair Table By Ralph Lauren

1.  Simply Don’t distress your furniture if you have the original white manufacture paint under the top coat.  Consider going for a high gloss Regency look, which often doesn’t feature distressing, but looks like glass.  This can look especially nice on serpentine french provincial dressers.

2.  Start off with a base coat.   With black top coats, red works well as a bottom color.  You see many oriental chests that feature black chests which are distressed showing a red base color.

I tend to work with oils, and prefer my base coats to be in oil as it sticks better.  I also prefer my base coats to be as flat as possible, but finding oil paint in flat is next to impossible.  If you end up getting an oil paint in a satin, after it dries, you can simply just sand it.  Be sure it is dry.  I have tried out many oil brands, and they are all different.  One brand, I waited almost a week for it to dry which is just ridiculous.  Granted, it was during the rainy season.  Sanding down your first coat of oil paint in a satin finish just requires a fine piece of sandpaper.  Be sure to work with oil afterwards, because most paint simply will not adhere to satin oil paint.  Everything naturally adheres to flat paint, so I tend to use flat oil paint in my priming coat.

When you go to distress your furniture, be careful to distress your furniture with care, because you only want to sand down to the red coat, not the white coat.

Popular Primers On The Market:

 

Excellent WALL Primer

Behr came out with a Paint and Primer mixed together.  My mom just finished painting her home, which they hadn’t done for several years and she was SOOOOOOO excited about the new color, but much of her excitement was that the paint didn’t smell.  She phoned me up one night and was so excited over the color,…..”OH You have to try out a company called Behr…. not Bear, but spelled Behr,….. they have a primer mixed in with the paint”  She didn’t know that I have been painting with this paint for some time.  Perhaps she remembered using paint with terrible fumes.  May be I have been painting so long that I don’t notice it, but she said she painted her bedroom that night, and was able to sleep in it just a few hours later.  She was so happy with this brand.  It is really great.  I remember the first time I tried the new paint and primer, I used a dark navy and it covered the wall very very well.  I was just as happy as her.  SO, if you want to use brighter colors, or even black, use the paint and primer, but just sand down your furniture first.  For hard baked melamine finishes typically seen on vintage french provincial, use a light brown oil paint in flat, so when you distress your furniture, it is a base color that looks much like wood.

WALL Primer

For the longest time, my favorite primer was Gripper as it is a fantastic primer, but I no longer use it on my furniture, but it is really good on the walls.  I first used it to seal a floor that was being painted white in an apartment building. It held up on apartment floors that dozens of people would walk on daily.

Kilz is another very popular primer.  Many people think it is one of the best primers out on the market. If you do use this brand, consider the spray paint primer…..Kilz Original Primer Spray Paint. The oil primer is especially thick and very hard to manipulateso I wouldn’t recommend it.  I have not tried their water-based version, so please don’t discount this brand all together.

I didn’t fully appreciate a great primer until I stumbled upon a fabulous primer that I cannot live without. Today I use it for all my painted furniture, and it has rejuvenated my passion for painting. Every primer is a bit different, and I am so thankful to have come across it.  My biggest secret is Cover Stain which can be found at most Hardware stores.  You also can order it through Amazon.  It is called Cover Stain By Zinsser and I use the oil paint that is tint-table. When ever I use this paint, I get it tinted the color I am wanting.  It only works with relatively light colors.  I tend to mix it in with other oil paints to get the overall color darker, because it is an oil base.  High Hide Odorless Oil Primer without Sanding – Odorless Primer

Overall Best FURNITURE Primer

*The most surprising thing is that their oil-based primer is thin rather than thick, and it goes on like butter. Considering it is an oil paint, that is rather shocking. This paint seems to have so many features that I just cannot live without now.

*As it dries, the paint strokes often even out.  I tend to use foam brushes after painting with a paint brush.  It is interesting to know this paint evens itself out compared to other oil paints which shows every brush stroke.

*In addition, the paint dries rather quickly. It can be dry within 3 hours, which you can apply another coat. By the next day you can sand, and it sands especially easy after 2 days compared to any other brand.

*This oil paint has teeth! It grips to almost anything without being scratched.

*Also, it is one of the ONLY oil paints that dries to a matte finish. I often add two coats of the primer, then I seal it with a Polycrylic water-based sealer, and then I add Johnson Paste Wax. It produces a perfect Swedish finish. This OIL paint can be tinted most light colors which makes it a dream to work with. It has rejuvenated my passion for painting and I couldn’t be more excited to paint furniture right now.

 
Your Safety and Health

HERE is some caution.  Please take this piece of advice seriously.  You need to wear a protective paint respirator when using oil paints.  This paint contains crystalline silica.  I always wear a respirator when dealing with oil based paints.  This paint contains crystalline silica, which when inhaled causes lung disease such as silicosis and possibly cancer. To avoid breathing in silica, wear a respirator approved for protection against crystalline silica dust.  I almost developed asthma because I sprayed this primer out of a paint sprayer.  Since then, I have thrown away my paint sprayer, only to go back to hand painting.  When you cannot breath, it is not worth it.  Use a respirator when dealing with these toxic paints.

 

If you have success with organic paints, please so email me, and I can post your success stories…..

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Reproduction French 18th Century Chests

This chest is an antique reproduction of a chest originating from the countryside of Southern France typical of those seen in the 18th century. This fabulous chest is made from solid pine wood and wrought iron, and features a beautiful aged patina.

The process that Laurel Crown goes through is they layer their paint, and then scrape it and then sand it down by hand.

Charles Faudree is known as a French Country Designer, and features a lot of solid wood 18th century style chests in his French Country Living book.

In his book he details the Nomadic lifestyle and features many pictures with authentic looking rooms that could give you some ideas of how to decorate with this style of chest.

This French Country chest of drawers is a charming and is a provincial addition to a home which is designed around french furniture.  The dresser consists of four solid pine drawers, wrought iron handles make this chest of drawers both beautiful and practical.

The chest is made from pine, and weathered,so you are guaranteed a realistic looking antique chest to complement your home.  Only a few companies have made reproductions of these french looking primitive chests that having one in your home would certainly speak volumes.

Laurel Crown is known for their reproduction furniture and meticulous craftsmanship.  Their time tested techniques for creating detailed rich painted finishes saves you time painting, and lets face it, most of us are not professional faux artists!  The chest has an antique off-white patina which will enable you to match it up with your existing furniture.

French Country Chest of Drawers (Solid Pine Wood, Painted & Distressed Antique Beige)

 

18th Century French Chest

This chest shows you the quality of the antique french furniture here.

Fine 18th Century French Provincial Chest From Carl W Stinson Antiques

Fine 18th Century French Provincial Chest From Carl W Stinson Antiques

18th Century French Chest

Both Pictures taken from Charles Faudree French Style, And Antique Style Dressers 

Charles Faudree’s French Country Signature has made a handsome living by bringing a bit of the French to the Midwest. Famed for his Parisian buying trips, where he negotiates with flea market vendors using a pen and paper, Faudree confides “a signature piece doesn’t have to be expensive. 

The look the designer refers to is typified by floor-sweeping silk draperies and overstuffed chairs upholstered in merrily patterned fabrics long on luxury.

Faudree’s obsession with textiles is evident on every page, and far from simply focusing on predictable pastoral-themed toile to recreate the charm of French country cottages, his experiments with dragon-fly prints, check patterns and rich golden embellishments have formed his signature style.

A testament to the author’s knack for gilt-edged comfort (including the liberal use of painted furniture, ornate mirrors and pottery displays), this book, and Faudree as an unpretentious guide, will please readers looking to spruce up their homes.

[pdf-embedder url=”http://thefrenchprovincialfurniture.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/frenchstyleauthority.com-Baroque-French-Style.pdf” title=”frenchstyleauthority.com-Baroque French Style”]

More Inspiration!

[pdf-embedder url=”http://thefrenchprovincialfurniture.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/frenchstyleauthority.com-Decorating-Around-The-French-Styles-Designer-Alessandra-Branca.pdf” title=”frenchstyleauthority.com-Decorating Around The French Styles- Designer Alessandra Branca”]
More Inspiration!

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How To Create Patina On Furniture

This lovely french Provincial Dresser features a detailed layered paint finish not typically seen on vintage furniture.  This chest has what looks to be a blue paint, accented with gold around the drawer frames.

Sold by Karina Gentinetta, an antique dealer in New York, this provincial dresser sure hits it out of the ballpark.

The distressing seen on the wood, and wear over time gives it that antique appearance.  As you look closely at some of the photos, the chest does have some dirt which might be just normal use over time.  It certainly adds to the overall time-worn appearance. 

When painting blue,  many people go wrong by just painting the dresser a shade of blue, and calling it a day.  Going the extra mile by adding the gold accenting can really push a vintage french provincial dresser from something typical to a dresser that looks to have antique worth and value.

Achieving the antique blue finishes are easier than you think.  Often times in the past I have used brighter pastel colors with a darker glaze.  The tip here is pastel paint.  Brighter colors wouldn’t normally be seen in the 18th century, and no matter how much dark glaze you might use over modern day brighter paint colors, the finish never turns out right.  Pastels are typical colors that were associated with Marie Antoinette  and commonly seen on Louis XV and Louis XVI furniture.  Sticking with antique color palettes will give your furniture an authentic appearance.

Glaze is a combination of binder and pigment.  Binder is simply the glue that holds together the paint) Glaze can give a translucent look to a piece of furniture when it is applied over the furniture paint.

In the past I have used simply paint alone, but to be honest it doesn’t do a great job.  You really have to be skilled to pull off the look working with paint alone without glaze.  It can frustrate you in the end.  With the method of working with paint alone as a wash, you have to work quickly with a bucket of water and a cotton washcloth beside you.  I paint it on, leave it for a few minutes and wipe it off, and pull the paint around on the surface as it begins to be watered down.  It takes a little bit more skill working with regular paint, but the overall effect can be much the same as a glaze.

There are many ways to use Glaze.  Ralph Lauren some time ago advertised his glazing techniques at Home Improvement centers as as a way of transforming modern day patterned or tole wallpaper.  Glaze can be mixed with any color.  Lauren advertised a series of colored glazes and showed through  by simply rolling on a layer of glaze it could transform wallpaper.

 

Ralph Lauren Wallpaper Glazing- Faux Finishes

 

Painting on glaze and allowing it to dry works terrific with wall finishes, because it builds up a translucent finish that paint alone cannot achieve.   With furniture I find glaze works really well by simply painting on the glaze, and after a few minutes working the paint off with a damp cloth gives it the authentic look of dirt building up in the corners over time.

With my green paints, I usually add a dark olive green glaze over top, which is then rubbed off giving it the look that it is old and worn and slightly blue than  green.

As you look closely with this french provincial chest by  Karina Gentinetta, you can see marks on this chest which gives it an old worn look.

Get some ideas of your own of how to create natural wear by using typical things around your house like the slapping the back of an old shoe with a black sole on the chest or something else that might leave a mark without indenting the chest.

The trick is to create marks that appear sporadic and subtle, and not giving any clue to what tool you used.

 

French Provincial Dresser Sold by Karina Gentinetta
French Provincial Dresser Sold by Karina Gentinetta

I cannot remember where I got these pictures, but they have been sitting in a folder of mine forever, because the paint finish is so beautiful!   As you can see this antique chair was painted with a pastel blue, and then finished off with a lighter gray toned blue in the details of the frame.  From my opinion, I would go about re-creating this look by starting out with a pastel blue base paint.  After it dries, you could use an olive glaze to leave a slight appearance of dirt and patina over time.

Painted French Finishes – Author Unknown
Cyan Duchess Chest By Belle Escape

Check out the layers of paint and glaze on this chest by Belle Escape

French Provincial Slipper Chairs are tremendously popular because most people  feel as though they take up less room than the typical armchair. They are perfect in a living room, office or bedroom as accent chairs.

Todd Alexander Romano sold this lovely Louis XV Style Carved and Painted Slipper chair with a lovely colorful print, showing us how incredibly attractive a vintage re-upholstered chair can look.

Chairs started being developed with upholstery around the mid 1650’s chairs. By the mid 1750’s designers started incorporating beauty and design rather than just chairs that served the basic function only.

During the 18th century, before furniture production began, chairs were being made with even more curves than ever in history.  The French had a great effect on the development and evolution of the chair as they truly were were the first ones to develop a lightweight and comfortable chair.

French designers were the first to develop chairs with incredibly ornate frames, while at the same time being comfortable to sit in.

The process of making one chair required an incredible amount of skill and talent.  Before the process of mass production the process of making a french chair was extensive and the materials that were required were considerable.

The Louis XV chair required more wood because the chairs frame was curved and was often made out of ONE piece of wood.

Chairs during this time has bow shaped backs and curved legs making the whole process quite involved.  The french were one of the first ones to come out with a whole line of upholstered chairs, including arm chairs, wing chairs, slipper chairs,  lounge chairs and sleeping chairs.

French chairs are still some of the most fascinating chairs to look at and still some of the most prestigious furniture a person can own.  I don’t think we will ever get tired of the French chair.

Louis XV Walnut Duchesse 1750, From Marinni Live Journal Russia