Painted French Dresser Tutorial

by Debbie

4 Materials

$100

8 Hours

Medium

Cream and gold is one of my favorite finishes for furniture. Add a hand painted french graphic, and the look is pure sophistication. This dresser was one of my favorites ever. Here is how to recreate this timeless and one of a kind look....

Begin by finding a dresser to update. Tip: when adding hand painted elements to furniture, shop for a piece that has a smooth front, not too many raised wood details...so you have a nice canvas for your art.

You will start with a palate of cream and gold. I used Modern Masters Warm Silver and Behr Swiss Coffee.

I always begin by priming my piece when using a metallic color. It will provide grip and a better foundation for the color. Have your primer tinted to a color close to the metallic color and paint one good coat of primer. Then paint 2 coats of metallic paint. When dry, cover 90 % of the piece with 2 coats of your cream or white color.

Choose a design element. The graphic I used here came from the Graphics Fairy, www.thegraphicsfairy.com. To transfer my design onto this piece of furniture, I printed out the graphic onto transfer paper and used an overhead projector to shine it up.

I then traced the image up using watercolor pencil in gray because it is easy to wipe off after. Tip: I used gray water color pencil because I like to use gray with gold to give it some definition and where the pencil does not wipe away, the gray adds depth.

After I trace the graphic up, I begin painting the whole image with the warm silver metallic, which is also your base, using a round brush. I do about two coats to make the image opaque enough.

I then add a dark gray metallic, here and there, for low lights.

Coming along! I work off of a foam plates with both colors available and always an old cup with water to rinse brush and paper towels.

A close up!

After your graphic is up and dry, lightly sand the entire dresser to distress, along with the image. Here is the finished french dresser, after sanding and adding knobs.