A Little Bit of Paint Works Wonders

(We’ve added the video that should have been here earlier:)
Yes, we have done a lot of painting in our time!  On the walls, on furniture, on clothing, you name it, we have done it.  When we had our little shop called Chums, we were often out faux painting a customer’s walls in this way or that.
 Paint can really make such a difference to, say, an old piece of furniture.  In the video today, you will see a chair that, before I painted it, looked rather ordinary.  The legs and arms were wooden but rather old looking and a little beaten up.  I painted them a flat black and feel now that I have a new couple of chairs!  It was easy….ever so easy!  I just taped off the places where the wood meets the fabric so as not to get any black fabric on the upholstery, and painted away.    An old piece of furniture can suddenly become very new looking with a little paint.  Go to the Salvation Army or any second hand store and pick up an older piece of furniture and give it a facelift with a coat or two of paint.   More often than not, you will have to put more than one coat to really cover well, especially if you are painting a darker color.

                                                        (Videographer: Trevor Bryson)

And, while we are on the subject of painting, faux painting one’s walls is great fun.   (By the way, when you hear the term, “faux” painting, it just means that you are painting for effect, you are painting something to look like something it is not. “Faux” is the French word for “false”.)  The wonderful thing about paint is that it is very easy to paint over something if you do not like the result that you first achieve.  Faux painting is no different.  Robin and I often use sponges to faux paint.  You start with a base color in a flat finish which you brush on in the usual way.  Then you start using your sponges and faux paint over your base coat with a slightly different hue and using an eggshell finish or adding some glaze into you paint.  You can go around and around with your sponge or from side to side.  We’re not talking here about actual ‘sponge painting’, the dabbing on of paint that looks like a sponge was used to apply “spots” of paint to a wall or object.  We merely use a sponge because it is a great tool for distributing the paint on the wall in a swirled or streaked pattern that leaves a very pleasant finish.

Or, you might want to use your brush with the second coat, and using a different color with maybe some glaze in it, just bring your brush straight down, gently, giving you a striée look.

You really can get very creative and it is not difficult.  Try it – as I said, if you do not like it, it is just so easy to paint on over it and then try doing it another way.

Experiment a little bit with all of this.  If you are really in doubt about your technique, buy a piece of drywall and use that to practice on before you begin on your walls or furniture. Just be sure and prime it first.   You will be surprised at how creative you are and how great it will look.

Get a can of paint, pick up a brush, put on your gloves and get started!