Experimenting with Paint Techniques
Paint techniques have been around for centuries and still today there are new methods and paint techniques that are gaining popularity.
18/09/2022
Paint techniques have been a form of artistic expression and used for decorating for centuries. Paint mediums are used in so many different ways and new techniques are discovered every day. The thing about paint techniques is that you can interpret them in new ways and find the ones that best suit your purpose, whether it is bringing a wall to life, highlighting a feature in the home, or give an old piece of furniture - or a new piece - a new life or a unique finish.
Sometimes, you can stumble upon something and realise that it really looks good. It might not be a known paint technique and it might be something you did by mistake, but it looks good despite that. This happened to me a couple of weeks back and I wanted to share this with you as I have now started seeing this type of finish popping up in unexpected places. It is a wood stain experiment combined with a whitewash that is painted on and them removed. The images below might explain it better and perhaps you like this technique enough to try it for yourself.
Wood Stain with Whitewash for Coastal Look Furniture
So, an acquaintance asked if I would make her a desk for an area she was setting up in her open plan lounge slash dining room for a home office. She wanted a desk that would blend in with the rest of her furniture, which was a coastal theme with lots of wood accents. Apparently, she had been hunting for a desk for quite some time and hadn't found anything suitable other than online and shipped from overseas, which worked out outrageously expensive and therefore out of the question.
Finding furniture to fit into an existing decorating scheme isn't always that easy, especially if the furniture is going to be out in the open and needs to complement a room. We do have a fairly wide selection of furniture locally, but not that covers all types of designs. There are furniture stores that specialise in this and that and anything else you pretty much have to make yourself.
Making the desk to her specifications was easy. Using PAR pine and laminated pine shelving, the desk design was basic with two drawers.
After making the desk, it was time for some experimentation. The client wanted a warm wood finish that was overlaid with a look of white paint that had been sanded back. It sounded easy enough. The first step was to apply a walnut wood stain over the entire desk, as shown below.
The next step, as per the client's request, was to apply a whitewash over the stained wood. The first coat was apparently not enough and a further two coats were applied as requested. The only problem was that she felt that the paint finish was now too much, and it was more a grey colour than white. That's what happens when the whitewash is not watered down enough or you try to apply more than one coat. So keep this in mind when taking on any whitewashing project.
Now I was sitting with a problem. Once you have applied a whitewash, the only way to get rid of it is to sand back and start all over again and that was going to involved quite a lot of work. Time to put on the thinking cap and look at other solutions.
After sanding the painted surface on top of the desk, a new finish was slowly revealing itself, one where the warm wood and small amounts of whitewash were highlighting the grain of the wood. It looked very nice. The client was happy, and we painted the bottom of the desk in solid white as a contrast.
Below is the finished desk top after applying 2 coats of clear polyurethane sealer. I personally think it looks stunning, as does the client. This just goes to show that a little experimentation with paint techniques can sometimes have unexpected yet desirable results.