I got this buffet about 7 months ago. Although I have painted hundreds of pieces of furniture, I have never painted a piece for myself! This was going to be the piece. I really thought long and hard about what color I wanted to paint it. Mustard, curry, gold, sunflower, maize....those were the colors I thought of most often when I pictured this piece. I think that's because I absolutely loved this chest I painted last Summer:
I loved the way it looked with my dining room paint and my curtains. Maybe, it was just because I didn't get to enjoy this piece. It sold one hour after I delivered it to my booth. So after months of hesitation, I painted my buffet with a chalk paint in a shade called curry. It was horrible. It was exactly the same shade of a diaper or two I have encountered. Not a problem though, I was planning on the final coat being milk paint in Sunflower by Sweet Pickins. I love working with milk paint. I like how it has a mind of its own and it chips where it wants to chip, not where YOU want it to chip. It looks more authentic that way. I thought the bits of curry behind the sunflower would be perfection. So, I painted the whole thing -again- in milk paint. Boy, did it chip! The only problem: it didn't chip off and reveal the curry, it chipped off and revealed the original white!
I loved, loved, loved how soft this wax was. It was very easy to work with. There is also a wide variety of shades. I put it on and immediately buffed it off. It seemed to "stick" pretty quickly so there was no turning back once you started. I scrubbed parts of my furniture and the dark wax would not budge. I was hoping for more sunflower and less dark brown but once I started, it was on. I really like working with low odor products and this was definitely not one of those! Lord have mercy does this wax stink!!! It was rough. I suggest working in a very well ventilated area with this stuff! It was 90 degrees today and I ended up having to open my door to get some of the smell out of my house! Now, it's several hours later and I can STILL smell it!
I liked it. But it still seemed a little, I don't know, bright. Plus, those pretty details weren't showing up. So, I decided to seal it with a dark wax. Antique it a little. Of course, there was another problem: I didn't have any dark wax. I have hand tinted wax before but I was scared with a piece this big that I couldn't be consistent with my tinting. Why not just buy some dark wax? Because I live in a small town and we just don't have things like that here....or do we? We do sell a wax where I work. I've never paid much attention to it. Would it work on painted furniture? So, I did what anyone would do, I Googled it. Yep. It should work. I chose a dark wax and couldn't wait to try it!
Here's a quick thought on this wax. My first "review" if you will....
Okay- so on to the furniture- the whole time I was waxing it I had a feeling of no return. My gold buffet was slowly turning golden brown. I wasn't sure what to think. I scrubbed and scrubbed trying to get some of the bold sunflower to poke through but it just wouldn't! So, here it is:
It really is beautiful in person. It's just not the Sunflower gold I was dreaming of. If this was a piece I was painting to sell, I might consider this a " happy accident" and move on. But this was my first ever piece of painted furniture for my house and it kinda just doesn't go. I am going to place it in the designated spot though. I am going to live with it a while. Maybe I will sell it. Maybe I will repaint it in a few months. Maybe I will just fall in love with it. We'll see.
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