Artissimo - One Colour 2 Finishes

I couldn't wait to get my hands on 'Artissimo' - I just loved the look of this colour - so different, a really deep midnight blue sort of navy blue - I decided to paint 2 pieces, one which I would use the Bonding Agent, and the other I would let 'do its own thing'.

 

This little 2 drawer chest was really quite sturdy, although the wood is not all solid wood and I did detect some veneer when I started to gently sand the top, in fact quite a lot of veneer, so as is usual for me - my visualization of what I'm going to create ends up totally nothing like it!

I had designs on sanding & staining the top, but there was a really nasty ring stain, which would not sand off

so I resorted to painting the top as well.

Now this stain started to cause me problems - as it kept on coming through the paint even with the bonding agent mixed into the first coat, after I had given it 2 coats plus 2 coats on top without the bonding agent - I realised the mark was in fact grease or oil of some sort. Hrmmm - what to do?

I carried on, waited for it to dry, then a generous coating of hemp oil, buffed and re-coated...stain still showing but less obvious. I then decided to add a layer of furniture wax... much better, another few coats of furniture wax covered the mark - although I'm sure I can still see it, but I think I'm just paranoid about it now!.

As I was saying.. a piece never quite ends up how I visualize it, as well as the top being left in the wood I had plans on the drawer fronts staying wood as well - not after I realised as I was sanding that there was a thin layer of veneer! so I just kept right on sanding until it was all gone! - this piece was becoming a life work! I had to resort to painting the drawer fronts as well, but as this colour is very dark and its quite a small piece I had to think what I could do to break up the solid colour - maybe just a small subtle French  typography graphic - so I just added a Paris - Road address - painted in 'Grainsack' milk paint.

The table had a lot of interesting features, but sadly some of the decorative cornices on the corners at the top of the legs were missing - not being one to waste features like this - I wonder if you noticed - I used a couple of them on the chest of drawers! 

Some of them left some superficial damage, which was easily rectified with a little filler and sandpaper.

The top was quite marked, and I could see the wood was good, in fact I'm pretty sure it is solid mahogany, so this little beauty was going to get the full works with my sander!

She painted up beautifully just needing a little gentle buffing with some wire wool to take off all the little flaky bits where the milk paint peeled naturally as I didn't put any bonding agent in the paint this time.

 

I gave the top a coat of Rustins Wood Dye in 'walnut', before giving the entire piece a couple of generous coats of Hemp Oil.

    

Well, Artissimo has definitely lived up to my expectations - I really love this colour - it  does have a certain sophistication about it! 

Bye for now.

CJ