Back to Back: French Provincial

I don’t really paint French Provincial furniture much because its not really my style. But I won’t say no to client’s who already have a vision in mind for this curvy style of furniture. The last few weeks have been nothing but back to back French Provincial pieces for me, so in this post I’ll show you just how different the visions can be for this style of furniture.

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The first piece was just a simple, all wood single bedside table. My client already had a vision for it, and wanted it painted to match her existing furniture. All I really needed to do as far as prep work, was just give it a good sanding and priming.

For the base I used Rustoleum’s Flat White Primer. I always prime when painting something white because it helps to reduce the number of coats you are doing for full coverage. For a paint that does offer amazing coverage like Fusion Mineral Paint, you can get away with just one or two coats versus the 3-4 with most other white’s I’ve used.

For the base I thinned Fusion’s “Casement” with about 10% filtered (room temperature) water. I sprayed it using my favorite go-to sprayer for quick jobs, the Critter. Using the Critter makes for a quick switch between colors and a quick clean up.

For the top, I thinned about 15-20% filtered & room temperature water with Fusion’s “Coal Black.” This no doubt a true jet, deep black. I sealed it using General Finishes HPTC in Satin. This color combination is unique, as most French Provincial pieces these days are in classic Java wood and Antique White base. So this was a bit of a refreshing change.

For the next French Provincial piece, this client wanted something for her daughter. She acquired this piece from a local vendor, but it had a terrible paint and wax job that needed to come off prior to painting.

Here is the before. Doesn’t look so bad in the photo right?

After a 3-layer strip, I finally got down to bare wood, or what I thought was bare wood. I already knew the top was laminate, but I assumed based on the weight of the piece that the base was solid wood….WRONG! Turns out, only about 50% of the base ended up being some sort of wood, while the rest was a pressed plastic-y mold. I figured that’s what it was when the stripper began to eat through it and literally melted parts of the desk.

Here is what it looked like stripped. You can see some rough edges that I needed to sand down and flatten, but behold…those details are actually plastic. Fortunately, this plastic was sand-able and I was able to smooth it out.

After all that mess was said and done. I gave it two coats of Rustoleum primer, and three coats of General Finishes “Antique White.”

I custom mixed some Fusion Blues with white to create this semi-pale sky blue for the drawer panels.

I sprayed the hardware a bright silver (Rustoleum’s Silver) to blend in with the blue and white.

I found this really pretty paper to line the drawers. I’m so glad I got two rolls of this!

The last FP piece I did, actually went to the same client as the desk. I didn’t get a chance to stage it due to poor weather and tight delivery times, but to make a long story short. I had to strip about 6 layers off the poor thing, sand, repair and prime.

I painted it General Finishes “Snow White,” while the panel fronts and top were painted in General Finishes “Seagull Gray.” I also love how the gold hardware just pops against the grey.

Well that’s it folks. Hope you loved the diversity of French Provincial pieces, especially since each one is unique regardless of their style. Here’s a little side-by to send you off (minus the unstaged piece)!