Sunday, July 12, 2009

Furniture Painting Help Needed!

Hi, and thanks for stopping by!
I'm blogging this for Susan's Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch...

And because I need some advice!

I recently repainted the master bedroom a mother-of-pearl grey color:

And now I can't figure out what to do about my dressers. They are in the "unfinished" end of the room that I previously declined to share:

You see why? Awful!
The yellow dresser is going. I acquired a matching one for the mahogany federalist on the right there, which absolutely cannot stay as is. The pulls, at least, need to go. But the whole thing needs refinishing, and even then I think it will be too dark for the room.
I'm getting ahead of myself... I started out with the jewelry armoir:

A very bad before picture, but you get the idea. It was dark, chipped, a drawer missing... so I decided to paint it white. Which I did. I tried two different "base" whites (untinted), one from Ace and one from Behr, and they both look like they have a yellow cast once I get them up into the room:

The original plan was to do the same treatment to the mahogany dressers that I did to the jewelry armoir, but now I don't know.
So here are my questions:
- Does anyone know a good white paint with a slightly blue undertone? Or another color I should try?
- Do you think I should do a layer of the grey and then another layer of the white and then sand it down a bit?
- Should I also attempt to paint the dressers white?
- Or maybe try pickling the dressers?(would be a first) Here is a good example of what it might look like, if done successfully .
- Or is changing perfectly good mahogany in any way just blasphemy and I should simply change the pulls and leave the wood alone! ...?

As I said in the original master bedroom reveal, I LOVE just about everything in this room:

the photo of which I found just days after I did the paint job, so I realize that this is more beige than grey, but I believe the look is still achievable without (immediately...) repainting.

I would love your opinions and suggestions! I'm a bit of a beginner here, so thank you thank you for any advice!

6 comments:

Unknown said...

Boy! That is certainly a tuff room to work with. I do like the color you picked. I would probably rearrange the furniture a little.

Can't wait to see what you do.

~Liz

Sarah said...

Although I'm not much help with decorating, I do love the color you picked for your room.

Why not paint all 3 dressers to match?

Lori E said...

You might try sealing the dark wood with a good primer/sealer before painting it. The yellow hue may be from the dark showing through.
I think the white will look great.

Kammy said...

Hi,
I am no decorator...but,with the angled ceiling/walls tends to close in the room a bit..so I vote for white furniture to really lighten things up ! Maybe accent it with bedding in that camel/gray tone ?
Hugs ~ Kammy

Its So Very Cheri said...

I LOVE the mantle as the headboard. I also love the color.
CHeri
http://itssoverycheri.blogspot.com/2009/07/questions.html

come for a visit-FREE give away all month

Unknown said...

Hi again! Thanks for coming back and entering my give away! Your name is in the pot.

~Liz