Update at Andrea’s House: Painted Console Table

You’ve probably been wondering what in the world is going on with Andrea and David and their 1950’s brick ranch?  Well, not so much at the moment, but I think the wheels are going to start turning again on this house update project that I told you about in December.  With David’s back issues and Andrea breaking her wrist, things came to a complete halt for over a month, but they are ready to get it going again.  This time, they are going to hire out the painting of the den and kitchen cabinets and walls and that will be welcome progress.

In the meantime, we’ve been looking at fabric to recover 2 wing chairs in their sunroom and we are hoping to get that room at least mostly complete soon.

There is a still a lot of furniture that needs to be recovered or gotten rid of and we are still deciding on some of that.  But, for now these chairs will be recovered soon.  Yay for progress!

Andrea loves shades of blue, so she found this solid grayed down aqua fabric for the wing chairs.  We had problems finding enough fabric to buy to cover both chairs, but she hunted this down and texted me pics. We’ll use the stripe as the desk chair seat fabric and the Ikat print for pillows on the sofa and chairs.  They have a white loveseat in the living room (pillow above) that we are bringing out to this room, so we are going to stay in these hues for this space and freshen up the rest of the room once the chairs are recovered.  We will have a few more things to do in the sunroom, like get a rug or 2 and add some art, accessories and lamps, and I think that will be one room that will be DONE.

The next paint project will be that desk and chair above in the sunroom. We are going with a creamy white on that piece to further lighten up the space.  There are a couple of wicker things in here and we are going to spray paint them navy blue. I think this will be a wonderful soothing color palette for the room with the red terra-cotta tile floors.

Speaking of painting furniture, we did get one project completed on that front.  Andrea had a cherry console table with 2 stools in the foyer.  I decided to leave the bench out here in the stained finish and to paint this console table and stools with chalk paint.

We want to have a balance of painted and wood pieces throughout the house, so I’m going to work on keeping that balance going.  I do like this little bench as is and we’ll update it with some new pillows soon.

Now, a word about cherry Queen Ann furniture.  This Traditional style furniture has been popular for SO long and so many people have this furniture from all different manufacturers.  Everyone and their brother made this kind of furniture over the last 30 or 40 years and it’s been done to death, I think you’ll agree.  It’s a fine style of furniture, but it looks a little dated when a whole house has Queen Ann cherry furniture.  You’ve heard me rant about this before, but it’s just a personal pet peeve.  There are so many interesting ways to mix up furniture in a home and having all matching pieces is not the way to do it.  So, since Andrea has so much of this, we are going to paint some pieces.  I know there are purists who refuse to paint good wood furniture, but I’m not one of them.  If a piece has reached the dated phase and is no longer desirable in its current state…then I say PAINT IT!

So, I went over one afternoon and David, Andrea’s hubby, helped me get this set painted.

All the drawers were removed and the cushions taken off the stools.

We decided since the finish was SO shiny that David would hit it with his sander for just a bit.  We didn’t try to sand the whole thing at all, but he just gave it a quick sanding to dull the gloss.  You really don’t have to sand with chalk paint, but I thought it would be good to do anyway.

I’ve been working with Maison Blanche paints lately and really like their paints and finishes.  They have a lot of colors to choose from and are equally as good to me as Annie Sloan paints are.  I think their prices are pretty comparable and these chalk paints are easy to work with for beginners.  You really can’t mess it up using this paint.  This color is Robin’s Egg, a nice soft aqua blue color.  You can search online for distributors of Maison Blanche in your area if you’re interested in trying it out.

We used a roller and paint brushes on the legs to get the first coat on.  I did the table and David worked on the stools.

You’ll see the paint looks splotchy with just one coat, so 2 or 3 coats are needed to cover a dark piece like this.

And 3 coats later, we have this.  Much prettier, don’t you think? A quart of this paint goes a long way and I only used about 1/4 of this paint, so there is plenty left for other projects.

Stools and drawers all painted.

The last step is adding the Satin Varnish to the pieces, again from Maison Blanche.  I really love this finish too, it gives a nice soft sheen to a painted piece.  I know that wax has been used for years on chalk painted furniture and I think it has its place, especially with more distressed and vintage looking pieces.  But, I’m going for more of an all over painted look and we opted not to distress these.  So, protecting them with this water-based varnish is a good  idea and it takes away the chalky feel of just the paint finish.  It’s easy to work with, applies nicely and dries fast too. It’s become my favorite way to finish off a painted piece of furniture.  I doubt I’ll ever wax anything again.  That’s my personal preference.

Now, keep in mind that a hand painted piece like this will have some brush marks and imperfections.  It will not look like a factory sprayed piece of furniture, but it’s still charming and pretty, just not perfect.

Closeup after adding the Maison Blanche Satin Varnish.

Giving this console table a new lease on life is a good thing and now Andrea will enjoy this piece in her foyer for years to come.

If you missed this area, the foyer was painted with BM Revere Pewter, the same color that went in the sunroom. It’s a great color!

She was looking at fabric on the stool covers and got that done this week too.  I found this fabric and she went back and got enough to use here. Once we hang something on the wall in here, the foyer will be mostly done…except for a new light fixture. That still has to happen too. I’m going to wait until we are further along to help Andrea with accessories and lamps. We are going to freshen up her house with some newer things and also keep her most favorite accessories. I’m going for a cleaner, less cluttered look for her.

I love how this little console table and stools turned out.  Looks so fresh and updated now!

There is still LOTS to do at Andrea and David’s house to get this house updated and into the 21st century, so I’ll still be sharing all along the way this year as each project gets completed and done.  I know Andrea is more than ready to get this thing tackled!

Note:  This post is sponsored by Maison Blanche paints, but all ideas and uses are my own. 

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