The Artistic Home Studio and Boutique - Tips & Faqs

The Ombre Blues

Mon, 14 Mar 2016 23:02:03 GMT

We've been having an El Nino winter here in Northern California. Although we really need the rain, those rainy-day blues have been keeping us inside. In honor of the rain, I felt the need to paint something blue!

With General Finishes Milk Paint there are so many gorgeous blues to choose from! I decided to do a little ombre using 4 colors: Coastal Blue, Klein Blue, Patina Green and Snow White.

When painting an ombre, colors gradually blend from light to dark. I mixed up 6 variations as a starting point. Using a plastic cupcake-like container, and a measuring tablespoon, I mixed up the following paint ratios:

Next I visually mapped out my piece into 6 sections, knowing that each of the colors (above) was going to be centered in each of the sections. Then starting from the bottom, I painted the darkest color, then blended it into the next darkest, and all the way up to the lightest color on top.

At this point (with just one coat) someone came in and bought the table even though it wasn't finished!

For the second (touch-up) coat, I added a few drops of Extender to the paint to keep it from drying too quickly while blending. Using a small bit of paint, I worked on blending out any transitions between colors, to make them less obvious.

Once dry, I cleaned up the hardware and handed it off to its happy new owner!

Before You Paint Your Furniture...

Mon, 14 Mar 2016 03:19:37 GMT

Clean your piece before you paint it!

We've been telling our customers this forever! No matter what type of paint you are going to use, whether its a "minimal prep" paint or not, you must clean your piece before you paint!

What is the best way to do this?

Over the years we've tried and recommended lots of different degreaser cleaners for prepping furniture. Everything from TSP and mineral spirits, to Simple Green and Krud Kutter. We've made all sorts of recommendations and tried different products for different jobs. Some work better than others for certain conditions.

Finally, we've found a way that works under all circumstances! Its easy. And it will always work. Here it is:

You will need the following:

Denatured Alcohol (available at any hardware or paint store).
Scotch Brite sponge (the green, scratchy kind).
Paper towels (or a lint-free rag).
A fine grit sanding pad or 220-400 grit sandpaper.

Step 1:
Mix the denatured alcohol 50/50 with water. I like to keep a bunch pre-mixed in a plastic bottle (drip or spray works just fine).

Step 2:
Pour some 50/50 Denatured Alcohol/Water mix on the scotch brite sponge. Scrub your furniture piece with this (all surfaces that you will paint). This breaks down all the old wax, oils, furniture polish and dirt that may be hiding on your piece.

Step 3:
Wipe your piece dry with paper towels (or a lint-free rag). This will also help wipe off the residual dirt/wax/oil that the denatured alcohol just broke down.

Step 4:
Scuff sand with the 220+ grit sandpaper. This does not mean removing all the old finish! It just means wiping the piece down with the sandpaper to scuff up any sheen that might be on it. This is especially important if you have a high gloss surface! Scuff sanding will give the paint something to bite into and hold onto once it dries.

Step 5:
Wipe off the piece with a damp rag to remove any dust that might have formed during scuff sanding.

Now you're ready to paint!

Our friends at General Finishes have a video on this prep method, incase you're visually inclined.

Side Table Painted with Chalk Style Paint

Mon, 30 Nov 2015 05:21:58 GMT

We are very excited to try General Finishes new Chalk Style Paint! The folks at GF were kind enough to send me some samples to try out! A pint of Bone White and Black Pepper arrived the other day and I could not wait to play with them.

Last year at this time I was painting a Mackenzie-Childs style dining room table (think black & white checkers) and I really didn't want to relive the checkered theme. So I decided to try a combo of the Black Pepper Chalk Style Paint and Holiday Red Milk Paint. After all, its the holiday season!

THE TABLE:
I found it at a local consignment store before they sadly went out of business. It looks like something you would find in a hotel room.

PREP:
Minimal prep is needed with GF paints! Its one of the things I love most about them. I just scuffed the shiny top with a little 220 grit sand paper. Then I wiped the whole piece off with a mix of rubbing alcohol & water. I recommend using a 50/50 denatured alcohol/water mix. But the rubbing alcohol was what I had on hand. Next I wiped the whole thing down with a damp rag and let it dry. Done.

I then painted the whole table with Holiday Red Milk Paint. As I was working, people passing by kept saying they loved the way it looked! I gently told them that it would not stay this way. One red coat covered very nicely!

Once the red was dry, I took the Black Pepper Chalk Style Paint for a test drive. Covered up all that yummy red goodness on the table legs and base. A few observations about this new paint:

It has awesome coverage! One coat fully covered up all the red.
It covers with a bit more texture than GF Milk Paint. Definitely more of a vintage/hand-crafted look.
It dries quickly! Faster than GF Milk Paint.
It has a velvety, matte finish when it dries. Exactly like Annie Sloan Chalk Paint or Pure & Original Classico.
One passer-by commented: "it has no smell!"

I wanted to do something special to the top of the table. So I brought out one of the new rollers I recently bought from my friend Jennifer at Artistic Painting Studio. (I think these rollers may be my new addiction and will soon require an intervention.)

Because the Chalk Style Paint dries quickly, I decided to add a few drops of extender to it for the next step. The extender keeps it "wet" longer and I wanted time to run the roller through it. I put a nice, heavy wet coat of Black Pepper on the table top, then ran the roller through it, carving through the paint to reveal some of the red.

Once dried, it looked pretty cool! The Chalk Style Paint really has a beautiful, matte finish!

Next, I decided to "wet distress" the Black Pepper Chalk Style Paint to give the table more of a vintage feel. This is a technique that is easy to do with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint and I wanted to see how it compared. I used a damp Scotch-brite sponge - the green side to distress, the yellow side to wipe off the residue.

Interestingly, more elbow grease was needed to "wet distress" the Chalk Style Paint than is usually needed to "wet distress" Annie Sloan Chalk Paint. But it still distresses nicely. Also the color doesn't change with burnishing, which is a nice bonus. The Holiday Red Milk Paint underneath remained intact.

Stepping back and looking at the table, I decided I wanted the roller pattern to stand out more on the top. So I ran the roller through a bit of Holiday Red, and went back over the top of the table, applying paint this time instead of removing it. Yes, it was just what was needed. That and some flowers from our nice neighbors at Dandelion Flower Shop (thanks, Karim!).

Coming Soon: A New Chalk Style Paint!

Sun, 29 Nov 2015 19:14:08 GMT

For those of you who love to paint furniture and love using Chalk Paint, we've got you covered!

General Finishes Chalk Style Paint is a WINNER! We've been testing it and comparing it with a few other Chalk Paints, and we absolutely love it! Our first impression is that it dries with a beautiful velvety, chalky finish. It is easier to wet-distress than Milk Paint, has excellent coverage, and is still a minimal-prep, easy to use paint for furniture and more. It is more durable than the other chalk paints we tested as well.

What is the difference between Chalk Style Paint and Milk Paint?

Here's a video that answers this question:

Stay tuned for some fun projects we are working on with these two paints!

10 Reasons to visit us at the Ultimate Women's Expo 10/3-4, 2015

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 19:24:42 GMT

1. Ladies it's time to nurture yourselves! Spend a day getting FREE spa treatments, going shopping, learning from celebrity speakers, and doing something creative - for YOU!

2. Free wine and cocktail tastings! (of course you must be 21+ yrs. old)

3. We are offering FREE DIY workshops! Learn several furniture painting techniques - for FREE!

4. Make a beautiful mosaic pendant - for FREE!

5. We will be giving out FREE SAMPLES of General Finishes Milk Paint! Yes, you read that correctly! Stop by our booth and try out the best furniture and cabinet paint on the market today! Simple to use - no stripping, no priming and no waxing needed - no kidding! You will love it!

6. Enter our raffle to win 2 FREE TICKETS to one of our Pinterest UNPLUGGED art parties! And we are throwing in a bottle of wine to go with it!

7. Enter our raffle to win The Ultimate Painting Gift: A whole basket full of paint, stain, glaze & topcoat products from General Finishes PLUS a gift certificate for one of our furniture painting workshops!

8. Stop by our booth and pick up your coupons for 10% off our upcoming painting classes!

9. We have all sorts of beautiful hand-made jewelry, mosaics, fused glass, painted furniture & decor for sale in our booth to help you with your holiday shopping!

10. Why not have some fun this weekend?! We hope to see you there!

GET YOUR FREE TICKETS HERE: http://www.sfwomensexpo.com/vip

Updating your Kitchen Cabinets for LE$$

Sat, 01 Aug 2015 00:06:35 GMT

It seems like everyone I talk to these days is updating their kitchens! For those of us on a budget, painting or staining cabinets is a very affordable alternative to replacing or refacing them. If you're interested in learning how to do this, come visit us! We have all the supplies and free advice to help you out!

In the meantime, General Finishes has some great video tutorials! Here's a new one on how to apply their Gel Stains on kitchen cabinets. Enjoy!

Repurposing Cabinet Doors (part 1)

Sat, 25 Jul 2015 04:51:58 GMT

One of our favorite things to do is to keep old cabinet doors out of landfill! Just think about everyone you know who has done a kitchen or bathroom remodel. What did they do with their old cabinets? Did their contractor take them away and haul them off to the dump? Where do old cabinets go when they die?

I've got a better idea.

Here's a white cabinet door, and some white wooden letters from a craft store. In about 10 minutes, I dry-brushed the cabinet door with some General Finishes Milk Paint and Van Dyke Brown glaze, until it looked like driftwood.

Then I took the wooden letters and painted them in GF Queenstown Grey (milk paint). It sticks really well to the white coating on the letters. Once they dried, I watered down some GF Seagull Grey (milk Paint) and washed over the dark grey and wiped back. Then to get the spotted look of tin, I splashed a few drops of rubbing alcohol on the letters to get the light grey wash to separate.

Once all the paint dried (in about 30 minutes), I scraped some Modern Masters Metal Effects iron paint on the letters. Once it dried, I painted some rust patina on it (also Modern Masters Metal Effects). The next day, it looked rusty!

In the meantime, I found some random knobs (all shiny silver) that needed some character. So with Metal Effects copper and iron paints, some blue patina and rust patina, I transformed them as well.

Put them all together...

General Finishes Products You Definitely Want To Try

Sat, 25 Jul 2015 04:21:00 GMT

We've been using several new products from General Finishes in the studio lately and have to say we are quite impressed! Stop by our store to see examples and to purchase some to try out! Here's a video to tell you all about them...

Copper Patina Painted Lizard

Tue, 12 May 2015 03:30:30 GMT

My new favorite toy/obsession is Modern Masters Metal Effects (MMME)! These paints come in copper, bronze and iron, and are activated with different patinas that cause them to oxidize and turn beautiful colors. Here is a lizard that I decided to have a little fun with (*note: no lizards were harmed in the making of this blog post!).

I get these metal wall art pieces from Beyond Borders. They are hand made in Haiti from recycled oil barrels. I love supporting these artisans in Haiti - and their work is absolutely beautiful! You can read more about them here.

Mr. Lizard is about 34 inches long.

Before applying MMME paints and patinas to a metal object, it is important to prime it first! The activators will interact with the metal if they come in contact with them directly. So I put 2 coats of Metal Effects Primer on this guy first. And let it dry.

Next I painted a little color on the butterflies with some General Finishes Milk Paint. Any acrylic-based paint would work but this one is my favorite because it sticks so well!

Then, I painted Mr. Lizard with MMME copper paint and let the first coat dry completely. Next, I painted a second coat of copper paint and WHILE WET, sprayed it thoroughly with Green Patina.

<<--- Here's the little guy during the activation process.

I waited until he was completely dry (a few hours) and then applied 3 coats of the Modern Masters Permacoat Extreme topcoat to him. Now he can go outside!

Getting a Rustic, Distressed Finish Without Sanding

Mon, 06 Apr 2015 00:13:54 GMT

Do you like the chippy, distressed look of this table but hate to sand? We decided to try layering several colors on it by scraping the paint on with a hotel key card. (Credit cards also work well for this technique.)

Here's a bench we painted using the same technique. The first coat was painted with General Finishes Milk Paint in Brick Red (using a paint brush with lots of random brush strokes). Next a layer of blue (a custom color mix of Milk Paint colors) was scraped over the bench. Finally a layer of Patina Green Milk Paint was scraped over the bench. Each scraped layer is uneven and lets some of the previous colors show through.

Wouldn't this bench look great in your yard? The matching end table (shown in the picture below) was painted the same way. No sanding necessary!