Painting furniture can give an old, tired piece a new lease on life – but a specialty paint finish can take this a step further and turn a wallflower into a centerpiece!
My client Carol called me to help rejuvenate a writer’s desk to make it fit better with her recently re-done living room. The desk is a high-quality piece that was in great shape, but its worn cherry finish just wasn’t working in a room decorated in greys, blues, blacks and naturals.
When Carol and I discussed her goals for the look of the desk, we settled on a very dark grey/light black for the color to pick up on other accents in the room and fit with the overall color scheme.
With this decided, we the collaborated on the finish. After talking through some ideas, we settled on a distressed treatment with hand-rubbed wax finish to complement the early American style of the desk.
Giving the desk this look also picked up on the light distressing of some other pieces in the room while also nicely complementing the clean lines of her couch and fireplace and millwork in the room. With the hand-crafted finish in this rich color, the desk not only goes perfectly in the room, but it is now a centerpiece!
To complete the look, Carol also had me paint the chair used at this desk. Again, the chair was in great shape and recently reupholstered, but the light finish didn’t ties it with either the desk or the room. With the chair, I used the same color, but applied only tiny accents of distressing. The goal was to tie it to the look of the desk without looking too cluttered with the pattern on the upholstery.
Most importantly, Carol was happy that we hit the nail on the head in creating something dynamic and new out her 20-year old desk!
Below are some pictures of the project
Enjoy!
Jason
The desk before refinishing. I forgot to take a "before" shot of the chair (!), but you can just see the frame behind the desk
The finished desk in my studio
The desk and chair in Carol's home!