Hand Painted Furniture

I'm a big fan of hand painted furniture but not all of it.
To suit my tastes it must be done in an 18th C Swedish Gustavian-influenced style with pale colors, warm whites and details of gold leaf or hand painted landscapes within tiny frames. Or Chinoiserie.


I used to have a small business in the early 90's hand painting furniture but my style reflected the trends back then and I look at my photographs of what I did back then and cringe!


Over time my mind and tastes have matured and I now follow my own song instead of follow the trends or anyone else's tastes.


I am considering getting back into hand painting furniture.
I am experimenting on my own first.
This is a Rococo-influenced bedside table I got out of a neighbor's garage a few years back.
It was a horrid olive green.
I painted it Waverly's "Cottage Linen White" (my signature white I use throughout my house and Restoration Hardware's "Atmosphere Blue" (my signature pale blue - with warm undertones)

I used a composite gold leaf (real gold leaf is too expensive for my pocketbook) which needs to be protected with a lacquer to prevent tarnishing with age.
NOT a problem because I always protect my painted surfaces with Crystalfin non-toxic acrylic lacquer. I used satin on this table.

The knob is crystal. I found it at an old-fashioned hardware store here in Seattle, in the U-District on Roosevelt, called Hardwick's. It's my new favorite haunt!! I can't wait to go back there and look around some more. It's in an old series of rickety buildings with uneven wood floors and cramped spaces - aisles of good things from ceiling to floor. And good prices. This knob was only $6.

I lined the drawer with the wallpaper I will decorate my new bedroom with - found it for $22 a double roll online at "wallpaper and more". It's a soft white background with pale blue rose wreaths/swags.

I kept the gold leaf on the table crackled and uneven because I really dislike perfectly painted factory furniture. This little thing is hand painted and I wanted it to look that way!

The rose wreath on the sides are made of a resin of some sort from doityourselfchic.com.
I love her product and have used it often. Last time I ordered the faux bead trim I used last fall on my 36" round table in an earlier blog entry.
It comes milky white and can be nuked for a few seconds to make flexible so you can apply it to any surface be it flat or curved. It takes all paints or finishes, even gold leaf!