Help making furniture 'shabby chic'

[Squiggs]

My Missis is due to open a tea shop. Her plans include buying up old tables and chairs and then getting me to transform them into 'shabby chic' - I call it the 'worn out white look'
To be honest I don't relish the thought of painting 50 odd chairs and was wondering if anybody has taken on this sort of challenge and if they have any hints or tips.

[Squiggs]

Cheers for the replies.
We've done local auctions etc looking for ready 'made' but nothing doing, so it's a case of buying odd wooden chairs and painting them.
I'm imagining the process will be .. clean with sugar soap and a scourer (to key up at the same time), rinse/clean, prime (maybe two coats) colour (eggshell in some sort of muted colour, again maybe two coats) then rub back (some of) the edges.
Estimated time for one chair = 6 hours total. 50 chairs = 300 hrs!
(Think I'll be suggesting table cloths so I only have to do table legs!)

[Squiggs]

Blakeatron said:

We seem to be doing this more and more;

De-nib (sand/rough up) the existing finish, wash down with pre-clean (we use a cellulose based), spray primer white 3 coats, de-nib, top coat x2. Attack edges with sanding sponges, dont try and put 'dark' into corners - it will come naturally.

We spray everything using cellulose based paints - it is harder using normal paints. We say 2hrs per chair (style and damage dependent)

Good luck - its not fun!

I've got a compressor and guns ... but don't you 'lose' a lot of product when spraying?
Could waterbased eggshell be sprayed ????? It seems very thick, and I'm presuming simply adding water may not be the answer and may cause 'bleeding' especially if it's onto an old piece that's been previously varnished/treated with heaven knows what.

[Squiggs]

steveo3002 said:

get yourself a da (dual action)sander for taking the paint off on corners etc, can use sandpaper and scotch pads on it to rough stuff up

i recon white emulsion would work out ok too , maybe dip a rag in some thinned down dark colour and rub here n there to give an effect

I've got a da
I don't think emulsion will have the durability for furniture in what will hopefully a busy tea shop.

[Squiggs]

Yer, that is the idea, but having bums on seats wearing out the paint and then customers leaving with a powdery white behind wouldn't make for good business.
It's also got to be a non absorbant paint that can be wiped down to be kept clean .... hence my thinking of using eggshell.
All the chairs will be different with maybe two or three shades used, and combined with rubbing down by hand (even with a da) should ensure no 2 chairs look the same.

I guess I was just looking for a huge time saving tip - as I say I estimate a minimum of 30 mins prep (clean and key), 45 mins per coat of primer (by brush) so that's 90 mins, 45 mins per coat of topcoat (eggshell) so another 90 mins and 30 mins to rub and age x 50 chairs.