Wood Bed Makeover: How To Antique Painted Furniture To Look Old

This is a simple one step process to antique painted furniture to look old or aged. The secret to the antique paint finish is a dark wax and the process of antiquing the paint is easy. I showed you how I primed this bed yesterday and today I want to show you how to make painted furniture look old.

I am so happy with the way this bed looks, patting myself on the back and doing the happy dance. The color is not one we talked about but the bed is stunning. I think you will like it. I have another video tutorial I made while painting and “antiquing” the bed. Be sure and watch the video because it explains the process so well. There is a link to yesterday’s video and blog post at the bottom of this post.

How pretty is that bed?? The neighbors all had fun with me while I was taking photos of the bed outside. You just do what you got to do. The JTS was the subject of most of the comments like why was I making him sleep outside.

This is the bed before makeover for those of you who haven’t seen it.

I went down to the workshop to paint the bed and was going to find a pretty blue for the project. I was standing there looking at the bed and the artificial flowers on the table behind the bed caught my eye.

I started thinking coral. The bed is very feminine with all those curvy details.

I didn’t have a pretty coral paint color in my stash so I started mixing paint colors. I started with 3 latex paint colors and thought that would do it. The coral was too light and I ended up with about 5 colors or more in the mix. I do this all the time. The problem is mixing up enough paint for the project. If I don’t mix enough the first time it’s hard as heck to match the custom color I mixed up earlier.

The photo above shows the bed with one coat of paint. I applied two coats of the custom coral.

The video shows the paint and wax process in detail. I walk you through the whole process including applying the dark wax. The photo above shows the headboard with the dark wax. The footboard hasn’t been waxed yet. You can see how the wax deepens the color of the coral paint.

I waxed the footboard and all those details had me adding more wax and more wax to darken the details. I went back to the headboard and added another coat of wax. Once the wax wax dry I buffed it with a lint free rag.

After waxing the paint I planned to distress the bed and all those wood details but it looked so pretty I decided against distressing.

I went a bit heavy with the wax on the areas where the veneer was chipped off.

The bed is perfect for a girl’s room, girls of any age.

Time to take a look at the video……

How To Paint And Antique Furniture Video Tutorial

To see yesterday’s post with the first part of the video tutorial for the bed makeover click here…..How To Prime Furniture Video Tutorial | Vintage Bed Makeover

Antique Paint Finish

Well, did you like the color or would you prefer the blue? Leave a note if you have time. As always, thanks for being here and have a great day. See you next week, Kathy

Kathy Owen

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Author: Kathy Owen
Kathy Owen is the founder of the home decor blog Petticoat Junktion where she shares tutorials on painting furniture and upcycling thrifty finds into unique home décor. Her DIY projects have been featured on the Home Depot Blog, Plaid Crafts, Behr Designer Series, and in numerous magazines. Kathy’s newest website is HappyHomeDIY.com