Wednesday, January 29, 2014

CHAIR UPCYCLE - DRIFTWOOD PAINT TECHNIQUE


Chair - Driftwood Paint Technique
 
 
On this post, you'll find more fun with furniture while decorating our beach cottage.  I got this chair along with two others just like it off of Craig's List.  I got all three for $40!  woo-hoo!  They were originally going to be a part of an eclectic mix of chairs for a dining room table, but I soon realized finding eight chairs of similar height, in styles that would work together, and could also be easily re-upholstered was harder than I expected.  The back up plan was to use a couple of these chairs in bedrooms as extra seating.

Before Photo of Chair
Before

First things first - sanding, sanding and more sanding.  My orbital sander got a lot of the work done with 80 grit sandpaper. 

Chair - Driftwood Paint Technique - sanding
 
The sander had it's limitations and the dark stain remained in the nooks and crannies.  Out came the Dremel and I made use of these three tools to get the rest of the stain off.
 

With the stain off, I probably should have gone back over the chairs with 120 grit sandpaper to smooth out the surface before painting.  However, at that point I was done with the idea of sanding.  The surface felt a little rough but I convinced myself it added to the character.

Chair - Driftwood Paint Technique - sanding
 
When I started I didn't have a plan, but I knew I wanted to get a finish that resembled drift wood.  I bought a small can of driftwood stain, but it wasn't what I expected when I tested it out. (It was much more brown with a little bit of a milky look to it, and seemed like it would take a lot of coats to get the effect I wanted.).   Ultimately, I came up with this plan for my driftwood effect.

  • First coat of paint - A light coat of Sherwin William's #7030 Anew Gray.  This is a nice taupey gray.

  • Second coat of paint - Just a light dry brushing of Sherwin William's #7028 Incredible White.  I like that this gave the finish some depth, without being too bright white.

  • Final step of sanding - This step was key to the final effect.  I sanded the edges and some other select areas to expose some of the warm wood color underneath.  This tied in nicely with the seat that I reupholstered in a natural color linen fabric.

Chair - Driftwood Paint Technique
 
 
One of the chairs found a home in the master bedroom...

Chair - Driftwood Paint Technique in master bedroom
 
I did the same finish on the frame for the photograph over the bed...
 
 


The other chair sits in the yellow bedroom...

Chair - Driftwood Paint Technique in yellow bedroom
 
 
Pretty big change from the dark espresso brown stain and the microfiber seat, huh?  Not bad for chairs that only cost us less than $15 a piece!
 
For more beach cottage posts see my Beach Cottage page.

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