How To Blend Paint On Furniture

Introducing “Blue Crush”

Hello! Welcome back!!! I’m so glad you could join me for a tutorial on how to blend paint on furniture to get that one of a kind, wow look you are going for! Blended paint finishes are very popular in the industry and make for the best content.

This post contains affiliate links for the products that I use and recommend. Using these links does not change the price of the product, it just makes it easier for you to find, and I earn a very small percentage when you purchase.

In this two part post, I’m going to show you how we took this beast from “meh” to “wow” with a blended painting technique and some silver leaf. You can read my “How to apply silver leaf” post by clicking here.

But first you have to paint! Are you ready? Let’s go!

A Great Find At A Fantastic Price

So my client knew right away that they wanted a kind of ombre effect on this piece, but then they said the words coastal, ocean, waves, blue. Girl! You are speaking my language when you say things like that! I have’t done an ombre finish on a piece of furniture as yet, so I was kind of excited. I had done it on candle sticks, frames, and other smalls, but never on a whole piece, and then you tell me I get to do coastal ocean? Really? It must be my birthday! Oh wait….it was!

Prep and base coat

Prep was a pain on this one. Usually I just clean my furniture with a 50/50 rubbing alcohol and water mix. This piece, however, had the drawers taped shut with the stickiest duck tape ever known to man. I had to spray, scrape, heat, and scrub to get all that adhesive off! Wrap, don’t tape people!

Now that it was all clean, of course I went to my all time favorite chalky type paint, Rainbow Chalk No Prep Paint. I started putting down a base coat, or scratch coat in the following order from bottom to top:

• Morning Sky
• Sweet Dreams
• Blue Morning
• Royal Blue
• Abraham Blue

With this coat, you don’t care if your lines show between paints. It’s just a base coat. The next coat is when you start blending. So just lay it down and let it dry.

Blending the paint

Blending with Rainbow Chalk No Prep Paint is a little different than with other brands, because once it’s down and dry there is no reactivating it with water. That is how you blend most chalky type paints. With Rainbow, you can blend paint, but you have to use what is called a wet-blend technique. Which is just blending one color up into another, then that color back down into the first, I show you how to blend paint in this video clip.

Now on this dresser, there are some clear lines, because that’s how my client wanted it. And the first rule of customer service is the customer is always right! But I love how the deep blue faded into the lighter blue and then I just used a chip brush to brush some of the lighter colors into each other to give the feel of clouds a beach on a summer’s day as the waves are rolling in.

Sealing your piece

Now before I ever do any leafing, paint wash, or waxing to give a piece depth and that little somethin somethin, I always seal my piece with wax. Rainbow’s wax cures in 20 minutes and you can get back to work, so I absolutely love it. It does have an odor though when you put it down, so make sure you do it outside or in a well ventilated area or you will end up with a headache. But after 20 to 30 minutes, you are ready to give it some character. I went with leafing on this piece because the customer wanted waves, and I wanted to leaf…so there ya go.

Leafing is probably one of the most feared, but most forgiving things you can put on furniture, frames, or other decor and everybody just oohs and aahs over it. I have a post coming out in just a few days that will walk you through that process in detail including where I get my supplies and a short video link as to how to do it.

Let’s talk hardware

Ok, now this hardware I am not a fan of, but the client loved it, and again….first rule of customer service.  As you know if you read this post, I love Rainbow Chalk No Prep Paint Metallic Waxes!!  So I decided to do that for the hardware.

This hardware was so filthy nasty.  I soaked it, did the vinegar and baking soda, and boiled it and I STILL had to clean it with a wire brush!  Nasty!  But I took my time and I was patient and I got all of the hardware waxed and then sealed it with the Rainbow wax topcoat again.  Paired so good with the silver leafing and pulled it all together!

It’s Blue Crush Monday

But wait!!! I realized after I thought I was done that I hadn’t done the darn feet on the dresser. What can I say, I’m getting older and my mind isn’t quite what it used to be. Luckily it wasn’t that big of a deal. On dressers, I have a sheet of plywood that I lay out over two of my fold able saw horses and I just have the boys lay the dresser on it’s back so I’m not way down on the ground, because honey my mind ain’t the only thing feeling my age! So they laid him on back on the saw horses and I just used my chip brush to finish the feet out and sealed them with some wax.

One of my favorite things about Rainbow Chalk No Prep Paint, is that it dries so stinkin quick! I was done in 2 coats and it took all of ten minutes. I waxed the feet and then it was off to the back yard to be staged and shot. I knew I wanted this one staged outdoors because of its coastal theme. I just love how it turned out. More importantly, so did my client!

Let me know what you think! Leave your thoughts and comments below. Share your latest makeover with me. I love me a good furniture rescue!

Until next time,

Tina

Olde Made New

You Might also like:

https://www.thatsweettealife.com/blue-blended-paint-inspiration/

https://www.thetinshedmi.com/single-post/2018/01/27/Shading-Blending-Colors-on-Painted-Furnitur

https://realitydaydream.com/furniture-finishing-technique-bermuda-blending/