General Finishes - Creative Combos

Pretty in Pink Antique Sideboard

Julia Bishop — Tue, 07 Aug 2018 21:23:41 +0000

Believe it or not, I found this gorgeous sideboard FOR FREE on a popular selling site. What a stunner; solid oak and over 100 year's old ... it was love at first sight! I wanted to recreate a faded grandeur look for her (of course, she's a she ... she's now pink).

After prepping her and sanding the top back to the solid oak as this was going to be stained, she was given two full coats of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint (ASCP) Scandinavian Pink. When the second layer was still wet, I blended very small amounts of ASCP Country Grey and Old White to soften the Scandinavian Pink to give a faded, aged look (I use an old china plate as a paint palette and a mister bottle if the paint started to dry out). Once this blended layer was dry, I added a few touches here and there of ASCP Arles; it is my favourite colour and I nearly always manage to sneak in a bit somewhere (tee hee).

The next stage was adding a glaze, Fusion's Antique Glaze, to be precise. This was worked into the carved details to add depth and the excess removed with a shop towel.

I then wet distressed (very gently) on areas such as around the escutcheons, carvings, etc.

My next technique was 'fly specking' using diluted ASCP Graphite ... I use a small stencil brush and flick (for want of a better word) a very small amount of the mixture over areas such the legs and edges. Once, this was dry ...

My favourite part was next - waxing - I love it. In fact, I can't stop waxing lyrical about it! Get it?! Brings the chalk paint to life. I applied ASCP Clear Wax all over the bottom part of the sideboard and then added ASCP Dark Wax to certain areas like the edges of the doors and sides of the drawers.

For the now natural solid oak top, she was given two coats of General Finishes Espresso Wood Stain. Once dry, the top was sanded back to expose some of the natural oak again. She was then given a good waxing with ASCP Clear Wax and buffed to within an inch of her life!

She was always a looker but hopefully I've just given her a slight facelift. I hope you love her as much as I do.

The End.

Products Used

Annie Sloan Scandinavian Pink
Annie Sloan Old White
Annie Sloan Country Grey
Annie Sloan Arles
Fusion Antique Glaze
Annie Sloan Clear Wax
Annie Sloan Dark Wax
General Finishes Espresso Wood Stain
Annie Sloan Graphite

Project Category

Creative Combos

Country green table

Karolina Lolo — Tue, 07 Aug 2018 18:24:25 +0000

Recycled old white table. I’ve disposed all old white layers of paint from legs and old varnish from the top of table. I’ve blended green color with white to obtain shades on table legs and applied white folk stencils. Top is stained, varnished, whitewashed, varnished and again stained with other color of stain.

I made this table for young couple living in sweet county house at the lake.

Products Used

Anglais Vert Autentico Vintage
Vintage White Vittorino
Two colors of stain from Dragon

Winning Category

2nd Place

Project Category

Creative Combos

Green coffe table

Karolina Lolo — Tue, 07 Aug 2018 18:15:26 +0000

Small coffee table made on custom order.

Colors are blended, different shades of green made on my own. Stencils painted in red. Top of the table and part of front drawer is stained with vintage oak from Dragon company. Rest is finished with wax clear and brown.

Products Used

Anglais Vert Autentico Vintage
Red paint Pentart
Oak stain Dragon
Dark grey Vittorino

Project Category

Creative Combos

Ballerina Blush Vanity & Chair

Hollyarnold1234 — Tue, 07 Aug 2018 14:11:50 +0000

This wood vanity was found for $25. It was quite sad and unloved. I found the chair for free with chipped paint and no seat, ready to be dumped. Together I could see the potential and saw a little girl sitting on her ballerina chair staring into her mirror, day dreaming. The tulle skirt is attached to the underside of the seat with Velcro and is removable. All in all it was a very sweet project and I enjoyed giving it a second life. Thank you.

Products Used

General finishes Milk paint. Gilders Paste Wax in Richmond gold. Krylon spray paint in ballet Slipper for the chair.

Project Category

Creative Combos

Color Recipe

1 part GF Antique White
1 part Coral Crush

Shelved console

Margaret O Connor — Tue, 07 Aug 2018 08:34:56 +0000

This beautiful console table had seen better days and was destined for the skip, I decided to bring her back to life, her lovely legs and body were given a good sanding, next I primed her , 2 coats of General finishes Linen milk paint was applied, the top was stripped right back and I stained with antique oak water based stain, now she looked lovely but needed the wow factor, a lovely new drawer pull was added, a French inspired stencil in gold completed the shelf, drawer was lined in some nice strong colours using wallpaper

Products Used

General finishes milk paint in linen, General finishes antique oak water based stain, gold painters rich paint

Project Category

Creative Combos

Linen cupboard to drinks cabinet

Nicky Cash — Tue, 07 Aug 2018 02:53:47 +0000

This little once-scruffy linen cabinet was found lurking in a charity shop and now has been given a whole new purpose befitting a living room or dining room as a nifty little drinks cabinet, complete with interior light.

The original cabinet had a chippy, handmade quality to it, which was a little rough around the edges but what was peeping through was a beautiful original oak wood grain so I thought that had to be saved if possible. The sides of the cabinet had had a harder life though and the veneer was lifted so badly and buckled that it had to be cut away, filled and sanded which informed the design once more! I painted 3 coats of Ash from Fusion Mineral Paint on the main body of the piece. The interior and the legs were given similar coats of their Bronze Metallic which toned in with the Ash rather well.

Once the doors and drawers had been stripped I used General Finishes Dye Stain in Medium Brown to enrich the colour a little before moving on to laying out a fine line diamond-like pattern and then painted that in the Bronze Metallic too, along with the handles to brighten them up.

After the light was fitted into place, the whole piece was given 3 coats of General Finishes High Performance Top Coat in Satin to protect it.

Products Used

Fusion Mineral Paint in Ash
Fusion Mineral Paint Bronze Metallic
General Finishes Dye Stain in Medium Brown
General Finishes High Performance Top Coat in Satin

Project Category

Creative Combos

Cool mint green MCM

Nicky Cash — Tue, 07 Aug 2018 02:05:52 +0000

This six-drawer chest of drawers was pretty battered in places with the veneer bubbling up in places that meant it had to be removed and filled. The finish on the sides was cracked and peeling. The style and design evolved out of necessity mostly but was an enjoyable process of just going with the flow of the piece and what it needed!

I stripped the whole thing back with paint stripper to get rid of the damaged finishes and that uncovered a mish-mash of different woods. The main cabinet wood wasn't very interesting in appearance as it was so I took the chance to use my Medium Brown Water-based dye and Walnut Water based Wood Stain to give it some more drama and that got it to a lovely deep dark brown colour which had a lot more impact against the pale green Fusion Mineral Paint I'd picked ('Brook')

I'd stripped the drawers at the same time too but they had brought up an interesting pale wood grain with dark stripes so I left them natural and then worked out a design to show what I could and conceal the filled areas.

I have had a bit of an obsession with creating herringbone designs so I chose to play around with these patterns again and used Frogtape to create the designs along with a craft knife.

The design got 3 coats of paint and once dry the whole piece was protected with 3 coats of Enduro-Var in Satin - perhaps = a little risky over the paint but the golden tone of the product really brought everything together, enhanced the different wood tones beautifully too and dried to perfect sheen with a tough finish as expected ready to go off to its new home!

Products Used

General Finishes Water Based Dye Stain - Medium Brown
General Finishes Water Based Wood Stain - Walnut
Fusion Mineral Paint - Brook
General Finishes Enduro-Var in Satin

Project Category

Creative Combos

Scandi-Geometric Sideboard

Nicky Cash — Tue, 07 Aug 2018 01:02:24 +0000

This 1950s vintage sideboard was a true labour of love with all the effort required to create the detailed design as well as completely update the exterior of the piece.

It started out quite a dowdy brown with not much style, but the shape of the piece, the drawers and the legs and the fact it was a neat, useful width really drew my eye.

I scuff-sanded the whole piece and applied two coats of Walnut Gel Stain over the top to give a deep glaze over the wood which worked beautifully and made a much more striking backdrop for the design. I painted the legs and edges in Fusion Mineral Paint Coal Black.

I was inspired by Scandinavian designs in a brochure I'd seen and set about plotting how I could do something inspired by that but on furniture. I plotted it out on paper so I had a design to follow and then it was created on the piece in in sections in turn using masking tape to create the shapes and stripes, with a stencil creating the spots.

The original handles got an update with Hammerite metal paint in Smooth Black.

The whole piece was given three coats of High Performance Top Coat in Satin to protect it and make all the colours and the wood really glow.

Products Used

General Finishes Gel Stain - Walnut
Fusion Mineral Paint - Coal Black
Fusion Mineral Paint - Picket Fence
Fusion Mineral Paint - Little Lamb
Valspar - La Vida
General Finishes High Performance Top Coat in Satin
Hammerite Smooth Black

Project Category

Creative Combos

Creatively chic

Susan Carroll — Mon, 06 Aug 2018 23:04:38 +0000

This elegant mahogony table was the perfect general finishes upstyle project. I transformed it from drab and old fashioned to right on trend using gf seagull grey sealed with gf flat out flat topcoat to give it a luxurious professional finish

Products Used

Seagull grey and flat out flat topcoat

Project Category

Creative Combos

Color Recipe

General finish seagull grey . Flat out flat topcoat added for a very professional polished finish

Wistful Washstand

Emporium K — Mon, 06 Aug 2018 17:55:03 +0000

This lovely old washstand was given a new makeover using primarily Colour stains. For this piece, after stripping, I used a mix of GF Antique oak, Walnut and also Espresso to give a stippled and stripped effect to the wood. The marble was polished and the hardware was rubbed with Rub N buff. I also added mouldings to the cabinet fronts and highlighted these in gold. The washstand was then sealed using High Performance Top Coat.

Products Used

GF antique oak
GF walnut
GF espresso
Gf High Performance Top Coat
rub n buff

Project Category

Creative Combos