French Florence

 When our daughter Taylor started Radiology school, she moved back home to live with us. The idea was to help her save money, and she would not have to work so hard, therefore concentrating on school. Well, Taylor has graduated and passed her Boards on the first try. She is out looking for (an exciting) new job, and we are getting her things ready for her to move back to a place of her own. 

 Taylor found a complete set of French Provencial  furniture for sale on Craigslist. She bought it and it has sat in storage. With her new own place in the near future, we pulled part of the set out and began our makeover.   The set came with two nightstands, a king sized headboard, a long dresser with mirror and a tall dresser. It is the old-school kind of set where it is solid wood. (A/k/a HEAVY!!!)  

 Taylor loves the color turquoise and she loves black and white houndstooth. With that in mind, we pulled out our Annie Sloan "Florence" to redo one of the nightstands in the set. I had previously painted the tall dresser in an AS blue, but it just wasn't turquoisey enough for Taylor. I think "Florence" does the trick.

 Speaking of tricks, I had one more trick up my sleeve. A long time ago I had seen where someone wanted the patina of aging copper and they had used turquoise and gold paint together. I googled and tried to find the post I had read long ago, but I had no luck. So I just winged it! I took the handles off of the nightstand and then proceeded to spray paint the entire white French Provencial nightstand with gold spray paint. Surprisingly, it stayed on very well, except for the shiny laminate-type top. It did stay on the top, but just did not "grip" like it did on the rest. 

 I was doing this outside (in Oklahoma) and it was over 100 degrees. Not the smartest thing I have ever done, but I was so anxious to try my idea!  Because of the heat, the gold spray paint dried very quickly and I was able to put on a coat of AS Florence. At that point, I let Taylor's likes and dislikes take the lead. She did not want heavy turquoise on the dresser. She wanted the patina that was created with the gold over white and then the one coat of Florence.

 I also let Taylor do all the sanding. I showed her what to do and then let her take off what and how much she wanted. In some places she took it down to the white and in some she just let the gold show through. 

 We used the original hardware, as it could not be more perfect with the whole aged patina look. I did tell Taylor we might need to Rub and Buff a little of the hardware in places. I used my phone to take the pics and some of them are not perfectly clear. But I hope you can see how cool the "aging" is behind the handle. It is little white flecks and little gold flecks. 

 We put a final coat of Minwax on "natural". It has a very slight tint to it. I wanted to put a darker wax on it and whined begged for Taylor to let me, but she wanted to leave it as it was. 

In "real life" the color is just beautiful. We still have to do the other nightstand to match and at least one more of the dressers. I am not sure what her plans are for the other pieces, but we'll get them knocked out soon. In the meantime, Florence is enjoying her new French flair! 

Linking up to:

Wow Us Wednesday
Furniture Feature Friday