Antique Secretary Dresser

One of my pickers sold me this mahogany secretary dresser, in need of a little TLC.  It looks like an ordinary dresser, but transforms into a secret secretary.  

The inside compartments of the secretary are charming with tiny brass knobs on little drawers and a center, locking door with the original key. The customer that bought this piece requested that I leave the inside with its original finish. She did some research on this piece and said that she thinks it was made in the late 1800's! 

The dark stain was well-worn and had a lot of texture variations.  I only applied a single coat of Chalk Paint®, allowing the mahogany wood and texture to peak through the paint.  I wanted to the paint to look as old and weathered as this piece of furniture, while at the same time, giving the piece a fresh look. 

I used one of Annie Sloan's wonderful, oval paint brushes to smooth and blend the thin coat of Chalk Paint®. I used cheese cloth to further blend the paint making sure to disguise any brush marks.  I also had a damp cloth that I used to wipe the paint off all the edges, exposing the mahogany.

I almost forgot to tell you how to get this stunning blue color.  I custom mixed about 1/2 Old Violet with 1/2 Old Ochre Chalk Paint® to create the perfect faded blue hue.

Old Violet Console Table

 

Old Violet is a lovely shade of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint® and one that I chose for this antique console table.

 

 It had an old, dark wood stain and graceful lines before. Please excuse the blurry, night time, phone photo of the table before painting.

 

I dry brushed one coat of Old Violet over the existing finish and blended the paint with cheesecloth as I went. Dry brushing is a painting technique using very little paint on the brush and allowing the finish beneath to show through. 

 

 

 

 I rubbed off more paint along the edges to accentuate the graceful curves.

 

After allowing the paint to dry, I applied Annie Sloan's clear wax followed by dark wax.

 

 

 Old Violet Chalk Paint® turns into a very pretty, slate blue color once it has dark wax over it.

 

 

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