How To Paint a Gustavian Finish

Last year, when I was in Flerida, I started work on a repro Frenchy fauteuil.

(wooden arm chair.....)

I found it on Craig's List for 25 smackeroonies and grabbed it, since I was looking for a project.

It was a leetle dirty.....

And ripped.....

And in general disrepair....

Just the way I like it!!!!!

I love a big transformation.

It gets my juices flowing.

Even if I am all dried up and old.......

I work on my projects in my garage, down heah in Flerida.

Joanie, my neighbor and friend, has to drive by my house to get to hers, and she gets to see the latest thing I'm working on as she goes by.

Well.....

she loved this chair, so, she's the one who will get it.

The first thing I did was strip off the old fabric.

Well.....

that was a big improvement!!!!!

Next I had to redo the paint job.

It was done in the wretched, dreaded fake French Provincial look of white, tacky, ugly, horrible gold paint.

Sooooooo.......

I slapped a couple of coats of Old White chalk paint on the poor old thing.

Getting happier!!!!!

Then I used French Linen, my go to color, to paint the details of the chair.

I painted all the places that had been gold.

Where I was messy, I just washed the extra grey off, or painted over it with more white.....

(I can't remember.....this was last year)

Then I used a fine sandpaper, and slowly, gently, rubbed away some layers of paint.

The trick is to do this gradually and gently, so that it looks like a natural wearing down.

Then I used clear wax, and then some dark wax to give it a little age.

Here's the before and after.

I am now working on reupholstering this chair.

I have been back down in Flerida for a week and a half, and I can't seem to kick myself in the @$$ to get motivated.

I've been watching TV.....

eating.....

reading books.....

playing games on my computer.....

eating......

playing games on my iPad.....

visiting my neighbors.....

eating.....

Just generally chillaxing.

When I make the transition from Massachusetts to Florida, it usually takes me a month to settle in.

But, due to family obligations, I am only down for a short two week visit.

Besides, I am in the middle of a project in Massachusetts, and you can't expect me to do two projects at a time.

So there.

On that note,

Later, Gator