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.

[Bill]

My wife has done two chairs recently. It took her forever and they look pretty average. Could be her, could be that dirty white paint is hard to apply...

[Bit of a Unit]

Sandpaper will be your best friend!!!

Stick to corners/edges that naturally get bumps and scrapes and steer clear of gloss paint.

Ready done shabby chic easily found at auction houses and second hand furniture shops.

Lovely little tea shop locally that doesn't have a single matching chair and it looks all the better for it.

[hairyben]

+1 For furniture auctions, only popped in to my first one myself a few weeks ago, fully expecting stuff to be bid up by clowns as per auctions I've been to in the past, (there were a few chelsea tractors in the car park) but have had a couple of fantastic bargains. Some stuff bid up by determined idiots too, but on balance bargains to be had, and everything from unrestored antiques through to shop soiled/stock clearance. Lots of probate house clearances.

[whirligig]

I tried to do a small cupboard "shabby chic" with Farrow & Ball paint, wax, sandpaper etc but sadly it just looked "shabby ste" - harder than you'd think to make it look halfway decent.

[derboy]

It does look very bad when a load of decent furniture has been attacked with some white emulsion!

My advice would be to sand/stip any paint/existing finish off as haphazardly as you can. Then coat the whole lot in this stuff;

http://www.neptune.com/pages/product/product.aspx?...

Then it will have character and standup to abuse.

[anonymous-user]

We had some success with the Annie Sloane method and materials.

http://www.anniesloan.com/acatalog/copy_of_How_to_...

[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!)

[hairyben]

Might be worth buying budget/secondhand or renting sandblasting/paint spraying kit. If you buy then the mrs has to buy some tools for your shed/workshop/man cave.

[IanCormac]

Why not just look round the car boot sales and buy some shabby chairs if that's what she wants. I think the whole shabby chic look is a load of old ste personally, but good luck to her with the business.

[Blakeatron]

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!

[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.

[steveo3002]

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

[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.

[steveo3002]

isnt that the idea..that it looks worn ?

anyway mix n match things up a bit you dont want 50 chairs that all look the same

just had a google and theres a fair amount of how to sites

[wolf1]

Line them up in large batches and with the aid of some spraying kit blast them with the white paint. Just before they dry quickly rag the corners and edges to buff the paint off giving a wornish or trying to look worn look.

[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.

[oldbanger]

You could consider a crackle paint finish - it might be quicker to do in bulk than sanding?

http://www.wikihow.com/Crackle-Paint
http://blog.homes.com/2010/03/diy-crackle-paint/

[XCP]

derboy said:

It does look very bad when a load of decent furniture has been attacked with some white emulsion!

My advice would be to sand/stip any paint/existing finish off as haphazardly as you can. Then coat the whole lot in this stuff;

http://www.neptune.com/pages/product/product.aspx?...

Then it will have character and standup to abuse.

£60 for 500ml.
You are having a laugh.