To me, there’s nothing more wonderful and challenging about the beauty of painted furniture. It took Dearest a while to appreciate it. He still prefers wood stain, but knows just how much I love to create with paint, so he’s come on board more now!
I’m working on my One Room Challenge sponsored by Calling It Home and others. This week, I’m focusing on the main pieces of furniture in the guest bedroom.
Painted Furniture. I Love the Awesome Power of Paint!
I purchased this bed a long while back from Craigslist. I knew the French style I was looking for and fell for the simple, yet elegant lines of this bed. I wasn’t sure exactly just how I would paint this, but I knew I wanted it to be soft and muted. The room is going to be a guest bedroom for our children and their spouses. Two are married and the third will be married in June. So, when the family gathers, we need three guest bedrooms!
French Inspired
I knew a long time ago that this bedroom would be French inspired. My first purchase was the curtain panels. Then I collected pieces here and there. The wardrobe is my daughters but she doesn’t have room for it yet. She gave me permission to transform it with paint too! In the end, the room will be filled with painted furniture!
Wet on Wet Paint Method
Other than painting the furniture solid colors, this is one of the easiest ways to transform furniture and to give it character. I used two different shades of paint that complement each other and the overall color scheme. Using the 60-30-10 + 10 formula, I will have the 30 percent of the room this neutral shade of beige.
Step-by-Step Wet on Wet Painted Furniture:
The Wardrobe
This tall IKEA wardrobe was purchased mainly for function. Our old house has precious little storage closets, so we bought this for our daughter. It’s large! Now that she is out on her own, she wants to keep this wardrobe, but doesn’t have the space for it. She gave me permission to paint it to fit the decor in the room.
I considered adding elements to transform it to resemble a French wardrobe. I have plans for a beautiful French wardrobe in the future. I’m patient. I know I’ll find one! The bed was purchased back in 2015 just for this room transformation!
Similar Paint treatment
I used the same wet-on-wet paint method and colors for the wardrobe as I did for the bed. I wanted something different though. Remember, I don’t want furniture that’s ‘matchy-matchy’-as my friend would say. Looking through one of my French decor books I saw a wardrobe with intricate decor in the center panels of the doors. Fabric! That’s the answer! I searched for fabric with panels – toile of course is perfect for this French inspired bedroom!
What Does “Wet-on-Wet” Paint Method Mean?
When you apply your first layer of paint, the base color it is still ‘wet’. Apply it generously. Then, randomly apply your secondary color in swatches here and there. With a dry paint brush (most of the paint has been removed) lightly brush over the edges of the secondary paint blending into the first color. If you want more or less of the paint continue to add until you’ve achieved your desired results. Too much secondary color? Simply add dabs of the first color where you need it and blend in. This is a very forgiving painting method.
Mod-Podge Fabric Panels
I searched for fabric in the color scheme of the furniture and with repeating patterns that would complement and fit the door panels. Waverly’s Country House Toile in linen was perfect! I purchased one yard. Hindsight – I’d purchase two to three yards in the future! This works beautifully. I painted the door and drawer handles a caramel color. They’re not quite gold, but this color shade adds to the vintage look. Talk about an IKEA hack!
The Other Pieces of Furniture
click on image to see this transformation
The side table was painted quite a while back. I had this in the dining room but decided it would fit better in the guest bedroom. It’s marvelous to shop your house!
The vanity is my daughter’s. Again, she gave me permission to transform this. It was painted white and over the years was well loved. I gave it a similar treatment to the bed. This time, however, I added pink to the two-paint wet-on-wet method. This brings the overall color scheme of the room together.
Choosing Not to Paint
The last piece of furniture to transform was our daughter’s cedar chest. She wants to keep this, but has precious little space in her and her husband’s home. The chest was a bubble gum pink. I thought it was a cedar chest, but found after stripping the paint that it was veneer. There was actually four layers of paint that had to be removed. This proved to be an all day effort. Once I was done removing the paint, I treated the chest to a light poly-stain. My daughter and her husband love the transformation.
Going Raw
One of the hot decor trends this year is raw wood. I have this sweet little chair that I was going to paint, then decided to sand out the aged stain and go raw. This is my little homage to this decor trend!
Painted Furniture
The room transformation is well under way! Painting the walls complete. Painting the furniture complete. Now there are a few little tasks to do to complete the French inspired guest bedroom. Each week of the One-Room-Challenge I will be sharing the different steps I’m taking to make this room an inviting guest bedroom. Check out the other participants in this fun annual event.
