a TRUCK??? a DESK???

 

i paint A LOT of furniture and if i blogged about each piece.... well, that would just be silly!!

 

but every now and then... there's THAT project!!  the one you want the world to see!!!  which is why we have Pinterest i suppose :)

last night, i did one of those epic "must share" projects.  so here i am... sharing it ;)

 

 

About 2 months ago, a good customer of ours emailed me a picture to use as the inspiration for a desk he was purchasing from us.   I was expecting a picture of FURNITURE!!  but instead, i got a picture of a rusted out old truck!!

 

Immediately, i figured out WHERE the colors would go on the desk...  that was easy.

 

then i ignored the project out of COLOR FEAR!!!

 

WHAT colors!!!

painting furniture isn't like painting a wall!!  you can't just walk into Lowe's and do a "color match"!

so i start looking at my Annie Sloan color chart.  i thought, simple... Florence.

but the more i looked at it, i realized that wasn't quite right.  then i thought Duck Egg!!  but that wasn't quite right either.  so what i ended up making was 2 parts Duck Egg to 1 part Florence.  the pictures don't do it justice at all.  the color match is nearly perfect!

 

now for the "rust" color.  this was really hard.  my immediate thought was Primer Red.  but after zooming in on the truck, i could see the "rust" needed more of an orange undertone.  i would love to be able to give you a precise recipe for the rust color i made, but that would be tough.  here's what i did....  i had a can of Barcelona Orange that i had mixed Emperor's Silk into.  I think that was 2 parts Barcelona to 1 part Emperor's.  then, i mixed in an equal amount of Primer Red in.  i think it matches very well!!

 

the white of the bumper is Old White.  that one was simple :)

 

  i need to learn to take pics as i'm doing each step of the project!!

but i didn't do that :(

so here's what i did...

 

1.  paint the ENTIRE desk and drawers with the custom Rust color.  a good solid coat.

 

2.  when it was about 90% dry, i started with my custom Aqua color.  with this color, i did more of a dry brush, leaving bits of Rust exposed.

 

3.  this desk had the perfect trim on it to be the "bumper".  i did the same dry brushing with Old White on that area.

 

4.  i sanded just a tiny bit in areas that i thought needed more Rust coming thru.

 

5.  clear wax.

 

6.  hardware... the client chose a silver pull to mimic the chrome on the truck.

 

Notice i said the desk was about 90% dry...  the areas that were still a bit damp, i went right over the wet Rust with the top color... and it created a really cool "rusting through" look!

 

in conclusion... (i said that with my stuffy professor voice!) you need the following Annie Sloan colors to do this project:

Florence

Duck Egg

Barcelona Orange

Emperor's Silk

Primer Red

Old White

 

and don't be afraid to try new techniques when you're painting!!

 

 

 heres what we started with

amazing detail on the top drawers!

really cool feet!

and here he is... all done!  i couldn't stop staring at it last night!

  

in this pic you can see we have the silver pulls on top and the original pulls on the rest... that's how the buyer chose.

i think this picture is the closest at really showing the true colors.  it's just so hard to capture that with my iphone... in a dimly lit garage... at 9 at night...

the top is my husband's favorite part