Then we taped off the top with good ole
painters tape and
plastic, making sure the top was completely covered and protected from overspray.
Since this buffet is mahogany, we covered all of our bases by spraying on a few coats of
shellac. This just prevents any bleed through that may come through the blue finish. We forgot to shellac one small part of the buffet, and after painting on a few coats of paint, we could see some discoloring in that area. Shellac provides insurance so we don't have to start over when the bleed through happens. Luckily it was a small area, and it was easy to shellac that area and then move forward with more paint. The worst bleed through happens with lighter colors, but even this deep blue had a difficult time covering the wood tannin.
For the blue base, we sprayed on a few coats of our
chalk paint in Inked by Behr Paint with our handy dandy
Wagner paint sprayer. We love love love this thing! It makes our job so much easier and faster AND (the best part) provides a smooth brush free finish on all our pieces! We wrote up a 3 part blog series about how to use this paint sprayer
here.
Once all the paint was dry, we sprayed on two coats of
Poly. This round of poly seals the chalk paint so the glaze in the next step is easier to work with. Without the layer of poly, the glaze will just soak into the porous chalk paint and dry way too fast.
To give the blue finish an antiqued look, we mixed our
clear glaze with black latex paint and brushed it on with a cheap paint brush from the dollar store. We made sure to work it into all of the details and work in small areas so it wouldn't dry too much before we wiped it off. We have found
baby wipes to be the perfect tool to wipe off the excess glaze.
After the glaze was completely dry, we sprayed on three more coats of
poly to seal in the glaze as well as provide a long lasting durability to the finish.
Finally we were able to take off the tape and paper off the top of the buffet! We brushed on
dark walnut wood stain by Minwax to the fresh raw wood, wiped off the excess stain with old cut up t-shirts, and let it completely dry.
To seal the stained top, we love using Minwax's oil based
Wipe on Poly. The oil based poly brings out all the beautiful colors of the wood grain, compared to the water based poly we use over paint.
To finish off the piece, we cleaned up the original hardware with
Krud Kutter, then sprayed it with Rustoleum's
Oil Rubbed Bronze spray paint and sealed it with more
poly.
I think it's safe to say that this finish is one of my very favorite finishes! The mix of blue, antiquing and a stained top comes together to make one stunning finish.
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