Has anyone painted furniture antique white?

[LauraMax]

I have a very very dark dresser in my guest room & I'm gonna try to "antique" it. I *think* I'll be using flat white paint & rubbing it w/a cloth to get that aged look. Does that sound right?

 

[spyrosmom]

Use satin or eggshell, either all paint or up to 1/2 paint 1/2 water if you want it less white. (I don't know how dark you are trying to cover) If you use flat paint, it'll look like you dipped it in chalk. The longer you leave the paint on, the more will stick. For less white, paint and wipe immediately. For more white, give it a few mins and wipe with a damp (not wet) lint free cloth or rag. You can then go over the white with a bit of brown stain for an aged look. Or, sand off bits and pieces here and there. You may not want to go bright white. Try a yellow-white or a cream-white. I'm not a professional painter, but I do like to tinker with it

You might want to try the back of the piece or the inside if it is finished the same as the rest of the piece to practice your technique.

Nan

 

[atiman]

Nan is right.

Use eggshell or satin finish. Flat will not give you enough working time if you rub over the white with a stain or thinned down color on top for an aged look. If you want areas even darker wait until it's dry and then re-apply again. Top coat with a few layers of clear flat or semi.

I also agree that using a cream based color for the base coat.

 

[LauraMax]

Thanks guys--exactly the info I needed! I copied & pasted so I could print.

Do you really think eggshell though? The room is a light sky blue & I was kinda going for a beachy kind of look.

 

[spyrosmom]

Eggshell as a paint finish, not a color. Its a similar finish to satin. Not shiny, not flat, but in between. As for colors, I don't think I would use bright white. I would go with an off white, do you have a sample of the blue you can bring to the paint store to find the right white? Maybe a white with a bit of cool tones to it if you are putting it with a light blue room.

Nan

 

[LauraMax]

So it is! Huh! I always thought it was an off-white. You'd think with all the room painting I've done I'd have learned something.

And I'd just bought a nice medium brown stain to do some minor repairs to a table (which, BTW, turned out great! ). I think that'd work w/Namita's idea. Thanks for your help guys, this is the only room I haven't decorated since I moved in & I'm getting excited!

I guess the nice thing about this project is, if I screw it up I can just paint over it.

 

[LauraMax]

OMG! It looks awesome! I tried the cloth & it wasn't working so well so I ended up dry-brushing it. Now I just need to find some new drawer pulls. I'd actually ordered some but when I took the old ones off I found there were three holes--I guess this isn't the first time this dresser has been re-done. So I need pulls w/a plate to cover the hole in the center. I'm also thinking about a pretty stencil in the center of the drawers.

Thanks so much for your help!