Vanilla Bean & Coffee Dresser~A furniture wax tutorial
Vanilla Bean & Coffee Dresser
~A clear & dark wax tutorial~
This title might have a "subtle" hint of a Starbucks menu today! I'm kind of thinking I should have made a stop for some coffee this morning before I started writing this blog. The funny part is that as I was trying to come up with a description of the dresser I painted this week, it was the first thing that popped in my head, which leads me to believe that coffee might have been more on mind than I thought! :) Although, vanilla bean and coffee really does describe this dresser and the process in which it was finished.
I have owned this dresser and hutch for many years and used it in my master bedroom previously to this remodel. Here is the before pic. It has great detail and lines but like I have said many times before, it is hard to see the detail in a stained piece. The exception to the blended detail into the stain is only if the stains are different colors which can make the detail stand out or if there is a great deal of applique work on a antique piece of furniture. Now this piece is not an antique, although I have owned it for 10 to 12 years but it's probably 20 to 25 years new. It is solid wood and therefore a perfect piece to paint. Before we painted, because of it's factory finish, I did lightly sand the surface with a 220 grit just to ensure the surface was not too slick for the paint to adhere.
The original color of cherry wood is nice but as we are going with a French Country look for the bedroom, the cream color works better and lightens up the room with it's dark painted walls. The base color I used to paint the dresser was closer to a vanilla bean color; not quite white but not cream either. I used a dark wax (which reminds me of coffee) mixed with a clear wax that when applied to the vanilla bean, gave me a creamy off white color. I used Annie Sloan's clear & dark wax to make this combination. The mix ended up being 50/50 mix of the waxes to get the desired color. I love this wax because it has that ability to give you a variation of color over your painted piece. After the wax was applied I used a darker wax mix of 70/30 to be applied in the corners and crevices to add some age to the piece. I love this look and have used it alot in my home!
The hardware is the original and was in good shape but brass, which I normally turn my nose up at most of the time! In my opinion, the brass hardware dates the piece. The point of painting, waxing and distressing is to bring it up to the current style but recycling the solid piece instead of buying new. As you can see from the above pic, I stained the top in the restoration finish, which you can read about here. and painted the hardware to look like aged bronze & patina. If you would like to see how I painted the aged hardware, you can click here for the tutorial.
I am still working on the painted hutch of this dresser which I will show you next week as this bedroom remodel is nearly done! Yippee!
I duplicated the look of this dresser to the other dresser and hutch that we constructed from two seperate pieces.
Even though the styles of the two dressers are a little different we married them together along with the headboard to incorporate the same look throughout the room with the cream dressers, the restoration finished tops, and the restoration finsh trim on the headboard! It's a beautiful thing and was exactly what I was trying to achieve. You gotta love when a plan comes together!
The other projects I have been focused on this week was helping my son Gram, who has recently taken up refinishing his own furniture. As you may have seen last week, the desk chair that he and Hayley, his girlfriend, worked together painting and reupholstered goes with this desk table that Gram finished this week. I think it turned out beautifully! It's always fun to see the before pic too, although this is a before pic that is already in process of sanding; but you get the idea!
I found myself thinking, "Boy, I sure would like to keep that," but I really didn't need it! :) Gram and I put it in my booth at Daisies & Olives for resale. The pieces look so nice in the booth space! What do you think?
We also worked on some crafty projects that we built together, like a two-tiered wooden display, wooden spice jar cubbies and chalkboard wall hook displays.
Gram has also been working on a dresser that my sweet new neighbors gave us last weekend! I'm excited to share the finished project and details with you next week. We will be moving it into the booth this weekend!
Until next time.....wishing you a beautiful weekend!
