Friday, April 1, 2011

JUST PRIMER AND SOME WAX - how to white washed dove grey

I've made these instructions as detailed as I can,
however this is really a simple project.

Clean your furniture with a de-greaser,
I use Windex multi surface grease cutter.


Prime with one quick coat of grey primer.


Distressed your edges and sand all surfaces smooth.


Thin your white water based primer till it is the consistency of milk.


Have a spray bottle of water ready to thin
 your primer more while working.


Start by practising your technique on the top surface.

The top is easiest to work on and can always have a
 different look then the body. Which I did do on
 this piece as you'll see at the end. 



Have a cloth or sponge handy to help move the
 primer around. ALWAYS move in the direction of
 the wood grain and start slow you can always add
 more, which I ended up doing twice to get the look I wanted.

Pictures speak louder then words:





After the entire cabinet has the depth of white you
 want, distress all the edges and high points again.
 Because we distressed before adding the white
 layers this step is quick and easy.



I wanted a bit more of a punch to the top surface so
I added a dark walnut gel stain to the top right over the white.



While the stain was still tacky I saturated it with
more white primer. And I mean I poured the remainder
 of the bowl on the top and spread it from side to side.
(sorry no photos of this step as it is messy)
Water base primer won't normally adhere well to an
 oil based stain that is why I did it while it was
 tacky. Next using a sponge I lightly dragged
 it across the top to remove the excess primer but
 leaving this beautiful finish.


 Here you can see the top has a darker tone then the
 side. You never know I might go back and do the
 sides as well. The top turned out so gorgeous!

The final step was to wax and buff the whole piece.

Things to note:
- stain embeds into primer much quicker then into
 paint, so your working time is only seconds
- if you're painting on solid wood pieces remember
 you can fix anything you don't like


Photos of the finished piece can be seen here:
*A BARN GEM* 


I've shared this at:
SAS Interiors

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