Painted Furniture in Interior Design

Recently, interior designers are writing of the return of “brown” furniture; noting the availability of furniture made of mahogany, oak, walnut and other brown woods in vintage and antique shops. For those who are devoted to sustainability, vintage or antique furniture may be of interest as you will be continuing the life of piece already made rather than purchasing something new.  Brown furniture mixes beautifully with painted furniture. Or, to put it another way, the gleam of mahogany, alder, or tiger maple pops next to the matte, sometimes chalky finish of painted furniture.

Years ago, we purchased a mahogany buffet at a flea market or brocante in Houston. We used it as is for many years and then, to refresh it and enable it to contrast with our mahogany dining table, painted and “antiqued” the piece. I began by choosing the treatment for each area, deciding to leave the top as is and hand wax the surface, to paint and antique the drawer and cabinet faces, to paint the back and interior matte black, and to accent the face of the buffet by painting the trim areas in olive and then gel staining them with natural walnut gel stain. As you look at the photos you can see the stages of the process and the finished product.

I executed a similar Gustavian style paint finish on my great-grandmother’s corner cabinet. It is now painted pale gray and stands in our dressing room.

In the same room, we had dining chairs whose wooden legs were getting chipped beyond what could be easily remediated with furniture finish repair sticks. In order to refresh the chair legs, I painted the legs and used a finish of gel stain wiped over the paint to match the legs to the trim on the Gustavian buffet. A steady hand is required for this process so as not to get paint or gel stain on the upholstery.

Happily, now that we are here, we have extended family who comes for dinner. We needed additional chairs for these occasions. I have always loved chairs and began collecting them as a teenager. My first was a vintage oak office swivel chair my father and I painted a pale apple green. This chair is one of a pair bought for my first faculty office. The wood seemed a bit orangey, so when we moved here to the Texas Hill Country, I used a white gel stain and a cheese cloth and wiped over the existing finish to alter the look.  Just as was done in the 1700’s, this contrasting finish brought out the details of the carving. I was thrilled with the results. Using fabric left from years ago when we had the dining room chairs reupholstered, I removed the seat, placed it on the fabric and cut a piece larger than the seat. Then, using a heavy grade staple gun, stapled the fabric to the underside of the seat and reinserted the seat in the chair frame.

The idea and the courage to try it came from one of my design books, Essentially French: Homes With a Classic French Style by Josephine Ryan.

After arriving in our new home, I created a soft, dreamy guest room using things we already had and painting them for a unified look. This includes a bergère chair upholstered in dove gray linen and an iron bed painted olive green and natural walnut gel stain to bring out the colors in some antique botanicals purchased at a print market in a tiny plaza in Rome with an interior section of the picture frames painted the same color as the iron bed.

A dressing table is a nice addition to a guest room. We had an oak chest we had purchased in a vintage shop many years ago and agreed it would work for this purpose. I painted it the same olive color and then used cheese cloth to rub a pale gray gel stain over the surface and onto the natural brass hardware. We designed and fabricated a standing mirror and purchased a dressing table chair and a small lamp. This has proven to be a useful and much appreciated aspect of the room.

I have such joy in keeping the pieces we have collected over the years and renewing them to suit our new life. If you’d like to read more about painted furniture you might look at some of the other books I have in my collection.

Charles Faudree: Country French Legacy by Jennifer Jordan

Soul of the Home: Designing With Antiques by Tara Shaw

Patina Style by Brooke Giannetti and Steve Gianetti