It All Comes Down to the "Finish"

It's no secret I'm stuck on turquoise. Alright, I'm pretty much stuck on any color that's bright and vibrant, turquoise just happens to be my current "flavor of the week." So when I found these fun accessories the first color that came to mind was turquoise. The sconces weren't too bad as is, but since I can't just leave well enough alone...I had to paint it. Duh. 
The picture frame? -Well that goes without saying that it NEEDED some paint luuvvv, like STAT.
 

The sconces are made of some kind of lightweight but solid wood. The picture frame is another example of cast resin Syroco style, so detailed that I couldn't pass it up. I'm such a sucker for those details, even if it is resin. Plus, I knew I wanted to make the frame a chalkboard anyways, so the resin makes it lightweight. Bonus!

But today's blog is really about the finish. It all comes down to the finish. A lot of people have been asking about how I paint- what kind of paint I use, how I finish things, etc. etc.  Lately, I've been partial to chalk paint. There are several brands of chalk paint on the market that you can purchase already mixed, or as a powder to mix into your own paint, or you can make your own chalk paint. I've researched this a lot and I really like to make my own because it allows me more freedom in picking the exact paint color I want. I'm actually experimenting now with making a more "earth friendly" paint from scratch using natural powder pigments...but that's for another blog. ---Back to it all coming down to the finish --- SO these pieces have both been painted with a custom made chalk paint in the EXACT SAME turquoise color. Hard to believe right? They look so different finished. This is where the creative part of painting comes in. When I see a piece it just speaks to me, and I get this vision as to how it should look when it's completed. I'm sure furniture speaking to me warrants that I get serious mental help, but whatever - I truly do get a vision. Yikes! 

I immediately knew I wanted the frame to pop with bold color and be bright and vibrant against the black chalkboard. So this piece just got chalk painted and then finished in a durable semi gloss spray polyurethane. No glaze, no wax. Just a true color finish.

The sconces have lots of grooves and crevices, and I wanted them to have a darker hue when they were finished. So they got finished with a glaze and paste wax. I'll be the first to admit that glaze used to freak me out, and on some pieces it still does. Nothing can make you panic quite like slapping dark brown glaze on your beautiful paint job. It's sort of a make it or barf break it moment. But I'm getting more comfortable with glaze and so the barf break it moments are fewer and farther between. Thank God. The glaze goes on and then is wiped off, quickly so it doesn't dry too much. It sticks in the grooves and crevices and really brings out those details. I also used a paste wax for dark wood on this project which not only seals the chalk paint and makes it more durable, but also adds more depth to the color and details. The pictures below really illustrate this. The one on the left is turquoise paint ONLY, before glaze and wax. And the one on the right is the finished glazed and waxed product. You can really see the difference the finish makes!

The sconces and frame are available on my Etsy store. Check them out at www.remaderenegade.etsy.com and bring these chic and fun accessories into your home!

~Happy Shopping!