I’ve been a painting fiend the past month. Our daughter bought her first house, and while she’s on vacation, my husband, son and I sneaked into her homestead and painted just about everything that didn’t move. (I’ve also been a caulking fiend, but that’s another post.)
OK, we didn’t really sneak in. She gave us a key and a list.
I now have paint on most of my clothes, and even a haircut didn’t remove all the paint from my hair, but I’m OK with that. It’s been a working adventure that has been remarkably productive and satisfying. You can paint anything and make it look new.
However, after rolling every interior wall and brushing every baseboard with either Steam White, Ivory Mist, or Silly Putty, I was itching to work with a bold color and apply some artistic detail.
So, I painted our daughter’s rocker. It had some weather damage that a coat of paint would repair and some fine scrolling on the head rest. She OK’d the color Boston Brick (yay!)
After I sponged and brushed the wood with this warm color, I decided to highlight the etched wood scrolling with Toasted Cashew, the color of one of our bedrooms. After playing around a bit, I came up with this technique.
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I dabbed the highlight paint into a section of scroll work with a small art sponge, then wiped over the same section with a damp washcloth.
The color remained in the crevices. I lightly wiped off the surface paint until I had the effect I wanted.
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Then I moved on to the next section.
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Dab and wipe….
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I let the first coat of scroll work dry, then repeated the process one more time. The next day I applied a thin coat of polyurethane to keep the crevices sealed.
For not having done this before, I’m very pleased with the finished look.
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I like it so much, I toyed with switching our wooden rocker with this one. Ours has a walnut stain, so looks very different. Our girl would probably notice. So, I delivered her refurbished rocker to her new place and bid it adieu.
But, when I visit her, I know where I’m sitting.
It's beautiful! I love the color
You did a great job – so pretty! I have an old stained desk I hope to paint pretty soon. I was just going to sand and paint…and am considering a stencil :).
Oh that came out VERY nice! Good job. 🙂
The rocker looks very nice. You did a wonderful job of it. Your daughter is blessed to have your help with the painting for sure!
Excellent job, it's gorgeous! I've never refinished anything, but it's on the list of things to do. SO glad you stopped over for a visit! I'm across the state from you in the Sarasota area 🙂
Great job on the rocker, Mare! Thanks for coming over yesterday. My day was a bit crazy yesterday (in Blog land) and today will be a ton better. Hope all is going well for you now. (hug)
What a great mom you are. I wish you were mine and would come help me with my painting. (Steam White – Hey! I bought that last week.)
First up great job………second up would have been coold if you had sneaked in and did the painting without them knowing unless of course they would return and have a cow because you painted over things they didn't want painted so better I guess that you had a list……..
Wow – I always thought the crafty folks in life had a set way of doing things with no improvisation whatsoever. Love to learn that you guys make this schtuff up as you go along as well! I may well re-consider my stance on not doing anything artsy!
That turned out so neat! I did it on a wall display of frames. Same flying-by-the-seat-of-my-pants technique you used–dab and wipe. I love when things turn out better than I thought!
That was nice of all of you to lend helping hands!