Bringing Furniture to Life With Striping and Detailing
, by Amy Howard,
3 min reading time
One of the best parts of rescuing and restoring is finding pieces with great accents and features that may be hidden by age or years of use. Striping and detailing are great ways to draw those accents out and give them a beautiful finish, but how do you get started?
One of the best parts of rescuing and restoring is finding pieces with great accents and features that may be hidden by age or years of use. Striping and detailing are great ways to draw those accents out and give them a beautiful finish, but how do you get started?
The Basics of Striping & Detailing
This week on Finish Friday, Amy shares her tips for striping and detailing furniture, whether it has existing details or not. Her first and most important tip to remember is to always go the opposite shade with your striping and/or detailing. If the base is lighter, go darker with your accents! If the base is darker, go lighter.
From there, Amy shows us how to use One Step Paint™, an artist’s brush, and a steady hand to paint the accents of any piece. It could be the beveled edges of your cabinets, inlays of a drawer, or even lines you create yourself with tape! During the video, Amy also shares a little tip: get some old cabinet doors from a donation store or a Habitat for Humanity ReStore to be able to test your striping and detailing skills.
Amy also reminds us to avoid using chip brushes — get an artist’s brush that comes to a tip and is fairly stiff. Also, make sure you find the right size of artist brush for your edges; too big of a brush will mean messy lines and a lot of touching up later! Once you’ve got your paint and the right brush, you’re ready to start striping!
Up the Detail With Gilding
Want something with a little more pizazz than just paint? All you need is Gilding Size and Gold Leaf. In the video, Amy walks you through a couple ways to add gilding to your pieces, including in stripes or as a finishing touch on raised accents. For raised accents, Amy shows you how to lay your brush down sideways when you apply the Gilding Size. This highlights those details in Gilding Size and, then, once it comes to tack, you can brush on your Gold Leaf and watch those details come to life!
Amy also reminds us to make sure to cut the Gold Leaf “book” to smaller strips to get the most out of your stash. Check out the video to get some tips on how to check your Gilding Size and how to apply the leaf with your fingers. She also shows you which tools you’ll need for gilding. Follow her simple steps in the video and you’ll be making glittery, metallic works of art in no time! Glazing to Boost Your Striping
If you want to give a different look to your piece than “just” paint, Amy shares her tips for using glaze. Simply mix our Glazed Over, One Step Paint, and a little bit of water together. Then you can dip your artist’s brush right in and start striping! The glaze makes the paint a little thinner and easier to apply, but it also provides a beautiful matte coverage. It will look a little sheer, making the pop of color subtle, almost as if it was there all along!
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Ready to start practicing your striping and detailing? Amy recommends checking out estate sales at estatesales.net. As always, you can tune in to Finish Friday and learn new tips and tricks each week from Amy herself. Follow us on Facebook so you can see when we go live, or set a reminder for every Friday at noon CST.
