beachy Archives - Revive. Refresh. Restore. Lakeside Restoration

Liming Finish on Rough Antique Pine Dresser

May 29, 2020Posted in before and after, dresser, Furniture, FusionTagged antique, beachy, before and after, coastal, color, dresser, farmhouse, furniture store, refresh, restore, rustic, tallboy, upcycle, vintage1 Comment

I’d been itching to use Fusion’s White Stain & Finishing Oil as a Liming finish, and when I came across this previously stripped antique yellow pine dresser, I knew I had found the perfect piece! The previous owners had it professionally “dipped” to strip off the existing paint with every intention of refinishing it. That’s a familiar prelude for many of us! After years of sitting and moving from residence to residence, they finally needed it out of the way. By then, it was quite musty, battered, and generally “rough”. A liming finish would seal and protect it, but also highlight it’s character rather than try to mask it.

The overall construction was fantastic, but definitely “rustic”.

Fusion’s Stain and Finishing Oil (SFO) is a penetrating oil stain that soaks into the grain, in addition to an oil-based topcoat to seal and protect. Stain and Sealing in One step!

To use SFO on raw wood, I simply brushed it on, let it penetrate the wood for a few minutes, and then wiped back the excess. Below you can see the process and half of the drawer wiped back with one coat. I decided this was still too yellow, so I simply waited a day for it to dry, and then applied a second coat – brush on/wipe off.

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Below, you can see the difference one coat makes on the drawer front and the dresser top.

Now for that musty smell…every single interior surface got a generous shellacking! Shellac is the only surefire way to seal smells away from your belongings. The important part about sealing musty dressers is to brush or spray shellac on the underside, interior, exterior of each drawer (every side but the front) in order to completely trap odors away. The interior body of the dresser should also be sprayed or brushed because it can also trap smells.

Here is the finished piece after it’s second coat. It was That Simple! One step Stain & Finishing Oil and a bit of shellac! It was a great way to update and bring out some of the details while preserving the character of this piece.

This piece found its new home quite a while ago, but we have more unique refinished pieces available on our Facebook page Furniture Albums and our Online Store

Fusion’s Stain & Finishing Oil comes in a variety of stains to highlight and show off your wood grain. SFO Colors

Raspberry Buffet

April 8, 2020February 5, 2021Posted in before and after, Furniture, FusionTagged beachy, before and after, bright color, buffet, coastal, color, furniture store, glaze, lakeside restoration, prep, recycle, refresh, restore, upcycle, vintage, vintage matters3 Comments

I often hear folks who paint furniture to sell lament painting things white. “customers want everything painted white,” they say, “white furniture is what sells”, “we’re so sick and tired of painting things white!”. The redundancy is squelching creativity for some folks.

Oh, if only there was a pop of color…..

So, can you imagine how Excited I was at the request to combine FUSION’s Cranberry and CUREiously Pink to create a custom RASPBERRY color for a shapely but dull buffet?

WOWZA!!!

The approximate mix was about 3 parts Cranberry to 1 part CUREiously Pink. The pink was actually surprisingly robust!

Prep = Cleaning and Repairs

I’ve had this piece sitting in the shop for several months and never noticed this awful repair attempt until I took it apart to wash it. Someone attempted to glue this piece of trim back on. However, it looks like they tried doing it without clamping it as it was glued BELOW it’s target. Luckily, they also used inappropriate glue for the job, so it was easy to dislodge with a razor blade, clean, and attach properly.

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I have talked in previous posts about washing thoroughly with TSP Alternative before painting. FUSION’s TSP alternative degreases without requiring rinsing and is biodegradable. Many other cleaners are toxic (to you and the environment) and need to be rinsed, so this is the product I recommend. In addition to degreasing, older pieces may also need dewaxing with mineral spirits. A thick, scratchable layer of paste furniture wax isn’t the only sign that there is still waxy residue; years and layers of Pledge-type “furniture polish” products tend to build up over time and leave a thin, silicone-like layer on furniture that acts as a resist to paint. Think about how often your grandmother or great-grandmother polished her furniture.

This piece was washed until the wash water ran clean. And then, I put some paint on part of it just to see how resistant the remaining surface was. As I suspected, there was waxy residue on it. This “fisheye” look as the paint pulls back from the surface is an indication that your surface needs to be cleaned with mineral spirits.

Enter Mineral Spirits!

One look at my rag and you can see the additional grime that was trapped within layers of waxy residue. Odorless mineral spirits dissolves the wax and releases the rest of the grunge. NOW we’re ready to paint!!

Color!

I decided to paint a quick base coat of Cranberry as a transition color since I had only mixed up a single pint of the custom raspberry color to match the customer’s color swatch and didn’t want to run out if the coverage wasn’t solid. Turns out, the coverage was pretty great!

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After drying for a couple of days, it was time for the black glaze. I love using FUSION’s Clear Glaze since it can be mixed with any color paint to get the exact glaze shade you want. I just mixed a little bit of Coal Black in and was ready to apply!

Glazing with black tinted glaze deepens the paint color just a little and leaves nice definition in the crevice details. Here are two drawers, one with and one without glaze for comparison. You simply apply, and then wipe back the glaze until you have the desired effect. It stays wet for a long time so you can work with it more easily.

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This is how the whole piece looks, freshly glazed. We also cleaned and oiled the hardware with hemp oil to maintain and enhance the original aged patina.

A little more tweaking, a few internal repairs (door latches) and…..

Warm vs. cool lighting makes quite a difference for this color.

Either way, it POPS!!!

All of the products to complete a project like this are available at our Online Shop

If you are looking for CUREiously Pink, it’s coming back for a limited release!!! Our order will be in next week so feel free to order through our online store and it will be sent as soon as it come in!

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Beachy FUN!

April 27, 2017September 18, 2023Posted in Furniture, FusionTagged beachy, coastal, coral, furniture store, midnight blue, nautical, painted furniture, reverse stencil, side tables, stencil, tables, upcycle1 Comment

Maybe it’s because it’s been a LONG winter in Upstate NY; or perhaps it’s because our family just returned from visiting the beach in Florida; maybe it even has something to do with the obsession I have had with painting furniture either black or white or black or off-white…But I felt the need for some Cheesy Fun Furniture!I busted out of my rut by jumping into some FUSION Midnight Blue (OK, not so different from Coal Black, but it’s a start!) and a little reverse stencil staining on top of this great (heavy) oak side table.

I started by cutting the shape of an anchor out of contact paper and placing it on the previous finish. Then, I used a darker stain to cover the surface. Once dried, I peeled off the contact paper and gently sanded to bring the surface level.

That was fun!

I tried a similar technique on the whale and waves after painting the table legs….you guessed it – Little Whale Blue from the Tones for Tots FUSION line. However I preferred not to bring the tabletop much darker and it wasn’t a strong image, so I ended up covering that with a traditional stencil and washing it with Homestead House’s Driftwood stain & finishing oil. I think it’s just Cute!

But that’s not all…then I went totally off the wall and made this:

Yes, that is FUSION’s Coral stenciled with a picture of coral in metallic brushed steel. It’s just so bright and FUN – you can’t help but smile when you look at it!

Ahhh, so that has been my beachy, nautical adventure in painting this week. I hope it also brings smiles to many other faces! What fun color or technique do you want to try on a piece but haven’t because you convince yourself it’s too silly? I say Go For It – it’s just paint and wood – what real harm can it do? …and it might just turn out Beautiful!