Painting in Layers - Purplish Navy Buffet

Pat Rios
by Pat Rios
10 Materials
$100
8 Hours
Medium

I bought this beautiful buffet on Facebook Market Place for a bargain. I know many people wouldn't paint it but I absolutely love colorful furniture so I didn't hesitate to give it a total makeover. I recorded the process on the video tutorial above.

I love its design and hardware, but this orangey wood color was so blah.

I prepared the piece by light sanding, cleaning and priming it with a coat of Clear Shellac.

Then I brushed a coat of General Finishes Royal Purple.

I waited for the base coat to dry then brushed a very light and watery coat of General Finishes Coastal Blue.

When all was dry, I applied General Finishes Pitch Black glaze using a chip brush.

After applying the glaze to one small section I immediately wiped the excess with baby wipes. As glaze dries quickly, it is better to work one small section at a time.

To blend the glaze more evenly on the flat areas, I brushed the surface with a very wet brush. I used a chip brush because I wanted the brush strokes to show and give it some texture.

I went back with some blue or purple on the areas I found needed more of each color (see video) and after I was happy with the result and all was dry, I sprayed clear top coat over the entire piece for protection. You can also use a foam brush for this step, but make sure the glaze is completely dry or you may ruin your work.

I refinished the hardware with Aged Brass metallic wax.

With an old artist brush, I applied some of the same wax to all legs.

Here is the "after" picture. To check out a more detailed tutorial and pictures of the details, visit my blog post!

If you want to know how I finished this top using gel stain, check out this blog post and video!


I hope you enjoyed this project!

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Pat Rios
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  • Debra S Debra S on Aug 23, 2019

    I NEED to re-do a fab cabinet this winter and I was in a real pickle trying to figure out what paint to do it in... this helps, the milk paint sounds like what I would prefer, do you have to also wax the milk paint? ugh I don't want to do wax, I do like poly for things that get hard use...


    on a side thought- am I one of the only people who are bothered when people do NOT take the drawers out of a project and give the entire surfaces, in and out.. a nice new fresh smelling (some of my old things had an old smell, good paint got rid of it ) and pretty paint job? LOL I can't stand it if I do not do this. I'll even put some stencils on the drawer sides sometimes.... it makes me so happy to see pretty even when pulling a drawer out..

  • Maureen Maureen on Sep 02, 2019

    OMG..I thought the same thing.. purple??

    But the piece turned out absolutely beautiful. What a creative mixture of colors to achieve the amazing end result!!

  • Gloria tulip Gloria tulip on Sep 08, 2019

    Why the shellac? Perhaps as a stain blocker? Beautiful.

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