Floe – A Vintage Transitional Dresser

Hello Friends! Two nights ago I was up late and had the urge to paint something… I think I was up till like 1am, which is so not normal for me. Once I got started, I just couldn’t stop until it was complete. I’m so glad I finished! Not to get all artsy on everyone, but I didn’t have to think about how I was going to paint this dresser — It just sort of came to me! Introducing Floe:

I was going to stop naming my furniture pieces, but what fun is that? She just looks like a Floe to me. This mid-century modern dresser has really good bones and the classic modern straight-line shape. Check her out before:

Please try to ignore the surroundings (my pile of thrift store finds from the day). Yes, that owl is ugly now, but just wait till I’m done with him! :)

I used one coat of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in the color Provence, distressed, and applied a heavy coat of dark wax. Generally, I’m told that you’re only supposed to apply dark wax after you have applied a base coat of clear wax. Well, sometimes I like to break the rules! And I don’t think that art should have any rules right? You just have to play with it and experiment with different colors. I’ve tried this with a white before and it turned out terribly wrong. This time – A big win!

I only used one base coat because I wanted a lot of the wood undertones to show and I planned on distressing a lot! Since this piece has such straight simple lines, I decided to stencil a design onto the front and leave off the hardware (notice the handle grooves under each drawer). This adds just enough interest and maintains the modern styling since the stencil print is so large.

I used a paint I already had in the garage (A custom mix in the navy family), and offset the pattern slightly. The stencil is from Royal Design Studio and titled “Large Fabric Damask”. It can be purchased here.

After painting the stencil design, it was then distressed again, finished with Annie Sloan Dark Wax, then AS Clear Wax. Floe is a feminine, beautiful, classy, vintage masterpiece and I love her!

I’ve posted this piece on craigslist here.
Lots of love,
Mary

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