Nothing is nicer than owning a piece of solid wood furniture that is made to last. When that treasured piece gets passed down or introduced to new surroundings or decor, it may need to be painted.
Lovers of antiques will (not so) fondly remember stripping layers of brown or white paint from newly acquired pieces hoping against hope that what the paint was covering could be restored to an original-looking finish. Today we are as likely to paint over dull and drab coatings using techniques that can age or distress or add whimsy to a piece as we are to strip a piece down.
Taking a much loved piece an treating it to a make over can hide imperfections in the wood but more importantly it can bring out details and add a sense of age to the piece.
Gillet Painting is the expert when it comes to mastering techniques for bringing life to a treasured piece.
Here are just 3 of the ways Gillet Painting and decorating can age your hutches, armours, cabinets or cupboards.
The first method involves painting first and lightly sanding after, down to the wood in some areas. What is left exposed is then stained. This leaves a distressed look and when done properly, it appears that time has taken its toll. Gillet painting will even add a final clear coat for extra protection in some cases.
Very popular results are also achieved by Gillet Painting using a combination of paint and dark wax. This method involves using chalk paint, custom mixed to your colour specification. After the paint is dry, a dark tinted wax is applied over the whole piece – especially in the details, bevelled edges and the cracks. The dark wax can then be wiped away some most of it is left in the crevices of your piece. This aging technique does not usually require a clear coat because of the wax that is used.
Thirdly and not unlike the last example, a dark glaze mixture can be applied after your normal paint coat. Rather than putting on dark wax Gillet Painting uses a glaze mixture that is one half dark or black paint and one half of a glaze mixture with just the right amount of water added.
Don’t try and call Gillet painting when we are using the glazing technique. The glaze dries very quickly and we have to work fast wiping away the excess glaze. If we answer the phone, we will have to go back and sand all that glaze off and repeat that step over again!
You can discover thousands of images of furniture redone with great techniques on Pintrest if you plan on attempting it yourself or you can pin them for Gillet Painting to browse to get the idea of what you want in your finished project.
