A few weeks ago a client asked me to paint a large French sideboard for her. It had been previously painted and I had just a picture to go off. There was some distressing on the piece from what I could see and I thought I’d be able to prep and smooth out the distressing and repaint.
My client had sent me some images from Pinterest of the finish she wanted for this piece, and I was excited to get it started. I have lots of furniture on my Inspiration Board on my Pinterest account, you can check it out here.
When the 7ft+ piece arrived I quickly saw that the paint was not going to be easily smoothed out, it was heavily distressed and the paint was thick! It would need stipping! That wasn’t going to be any small feat but I applied some chemical paint stripper to one of the drawers to see how well it would work. While I was waiting ( impatiently ) I grabbed my heat gun to see if I could get it off that way.
The Heat gun worked well but I very quickly realized that there had been zero prep done on this sideboard because the paint was coming off in strips! It seemed that the heat was warming up the original wax enabling the paint to just slide right off! I have a Facebook Live video showing a little bit of that process.
Correct Prep.
When I had stripped off all the old paint I used white spirits and some steel wool to remove the wax. I did a very quick video on removing wax on FB you can see that here. The white spirits breaks down the wax and the steel wool removes it. When it was dry I used Fusion Tsp to clean it and a wire brush to scuff it. The surface was now wax-free cleaned and scuff sanded. The perfect surface for your paint!
“Your paint job is only as good as the surface its going on”
Some very wise woman once said
It was ready for the good stuff now and I got started using Fusions Coal Black and a good quality Staalmeester brush and it went on like a dream! The first coat looked amazing already and I knew it was gonna be a knockout!
Fusion Mineral Paint Coal Black
The second coat went on just as smooth and I used some steel wool to buff up the hardware. It turned out great and the client is happy! I enjoyed painting this one despite the extra work. It has a wonderful classic timeless look and I am more than confident that this will last for many years to come.
In the Clients home.
I Don’t often get to see the pieces I paint in their forever homes so I love it when the client sends me pictures. It now takes pride of place in her home and what a statement piece it is!
Let me know what you think?
Sarah X
I think it turned out absolutely gorgeous! At first I thought it was black but the last picture shows that very deep shade of blue that I love so much. I am in the process of selling my house so I haven’t really gotten into doing anything furniture wise. Once I get moved and settled I really want to learn and work on pieces.
Wowee!! Thanks for sharing it’s a stunning piece of furniture. It must have taken a while to prep 🙈 absolutely love the finish 😍 I think some people don’t get the prep bit which sometimes takes longer than the painting…. It’s a beauty well done x
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