My sister and I popped back into the ReStore last week and this time I picked up this bed.
Sorry for the poor quality of that photo. As you may be able to see, my driveway was pure ice that day and it was really cold out. I took a quick snap and called it good.
Anyway, I’m not especially trying to find beds these days. I was actually hoping to come home with a dresser or a buffet maybe. But, I didn’t find any of those sort of pieces that day, so another bed it was.
Compared to the gorgeous details on the bed I shared last week, this one seems a bit plain in comparison doesn’t it? I’m afraid that bed is going to be a hard act to follow. Still, I liked the fluted legs on the foot board of this one as well as the curve to the top of both pieces.
Lately I have been binge watching YouTube videos by Crys’Dawna at Bella Renovare. I became familiar with her work when I was a brand ambassador at re.design with prima. I also see a lot of her work on the Dixie Belle sites. Now, any of you who might also be familiar with her work are probably thinking to yourself that Crys’Dawna’s style and mine are drastically different, and that is absolutely true. I’ve seen her use as many as five or six colors on one piece, and we’re talking the brightest colors available. For example …
I’m pretty sure that you’ll never see me painting a piece quite like that (although I’ve learned to never say never). But that doesn’t mean that I don’t admire her work. Her blending of colors is flawless. Even though I probably won’t ever copy her exact style, I can still learn from Crys’Dawna’s videos and possibly modify her techniques to suit my own style a bit more. Or that’s what I was hoping anyway.
So I thought I’d give blending a try on this bed. The first step was to gather my supplies. I decided to go with shades of grey, so I pulled out Dixie Belle paint in Gravel Road, Hurricane Grey and French Linen. I also needed a brush for each color, plus a brush for blending them, and finally a spray bottle.
You can get a spray bottle like this from Dixie Belle Paint Co. It sprays in a continuous fine mist which works well for blending paint.
Now, let me stop here and say that this post is not going to turn into a tutorial on blending paint for two reasons. First, you’d be much better off just watching some of Crys’Dawna’s videos to learn how to blend paint. And second, as it turns out, I kind of suck at it.
Crys’Dawna makes it look so easy.
I spent half a day painting, spraying, and then blending, and then adding more paint, and spraying, and blending, and letting it dry, and then deciding it was awful and adding more paint, and spray, to try and blend it, and then letting it dry … you get the picture. No matter how much I sprayed and painted and blended, I just never liked the end result. It just looked like a splotchy paint job to me. And for the life of me, I could not get rid of the obvious brush strokes.
So why am I sharing this failure with you? I’m just keeping it real. Sometimes things just don’t work out for me. I definitely don’t have the patience to keep working at a finish like this.
After giving up on being able to achieve anything even closely resembling a smoothly blended look, I decided to go back to techniques that I’m good at. I re-painted the bed in a solid coat of Gravel Road (the darkest gray) and then I pulled out the French Damask stencil from re.design with prima.
I placed the stencil horizontally, rather than vertically as shown above, and I used the Hurricane Gray to do the stenciling. I just wanted a hint of the pattern, not something that was totally in your face. Using a color that is just a bit lighter or a bit darker is perfect for creating that look.
I added a faint ‘1902’ to the bottom of the foot board as well.
I was going for a very faded, imperfect look with the stencil so I wasn’t too particular about thoroughly painting every little detail.
Once the paint was dry, I sanded over everything and then added a coat of clear wax.
So what is the moral of our story? I’m not really sure. Of course we should all try new things and push ourselves outside of our comfort zone periodically. But at the same time, every technique out there isn’t for everyone. In this case, Socrates was right, “To know thyself is the beginning of wisdom.”
Sometimes you try something new and realize it’s just not for you.
How about you? Have you tried this blending technique?
Well, if you’d like to give it a shot, I’ve decided to give away my gently used spray bottle because I’m pretty sure I’m never going to use it again. To give you something to blend, I’m also throwing in a couple of shades of green that I think would be lovely blended together, Kudzu and Palmetto.
Who wants to give it a try?
The rules: I’m going to make you work for it just a little today, so to be eligible to win today’s prize please leave a comment telling me about a failed experiment of your own and what you learned from the experience.
Your comment must be left on this blog post, not on Facebook or Instagram. You are not required to follow my blog, although it would be awesome if you did!
I will randomly draw the name of a winner for today’s prize from all of the comments left on this post by Sunday, January 31, 2021 at the stroke of midnight (U.S. Central time).
The fine print: no purchase necessary, you must be 18 years of age or older to win, void where prohibited by law, the number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning, approximate retail value of prize is $54, if the prize is not claimed by Friday, February 5, 2021 another name will be drawn at random to win, blah, blah, blah.
As always, thanks to Dixie Belle for providing the paint I used on this bed as well as the items I am giving away.
In the meantime, this bed is for sale. If you are local and in need of a twin bed, be sure to check out the details on my ‘available for local sale‘ page.