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    Home » Painted Furniture » How To Antique Painted Furniture To Look Old

    How To Antique Painted Furniture To Look Old

    Modified: Jan 29, 2023 by Kathy Owen
    This post may contain affiliate links

    Share on Facebook Share on Pinterest Share on LinkedIn Share on Twitter <use href="#<svg width="1em" height="1em" viewBox="0 0 32 32" class="scriptlesssocialsharing__icon flipboard" fill="currentcolor" aria-hidden="true" focusable="false" role="img"> <title>flipboard</title> <path d="M24.997 13.001h-5.998v5.998h-5.998v5.998h-5.998v-17.995h17.995zM1.004 1.004v29.991h29.991v-29.991z"></path> </svg>" xlink:href="# flipboard "> Share on Flip it

    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.

    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 To Make Painted Furniture Look Old By Using Dark Wax

    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.

    vintage bed from the junk shop

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

    coral inspiration for painting the vintage bed

    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.

    mixing paints together to make custom paint color for furniture makeover

    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.

    painting a vintage bed

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

    waxed and antiqued headboard and footboard painted only

    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.

    How To Make Painted Furniture Look Old Using Dark Wax

    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.

    beautifully detailed vintage bed painted coral color and paint aged with wax

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

    coral bedroom furniture

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

    how to paint furniture and use dark wax to antique paint

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

    Paint vintage furniture and give the paint an antiqued or aged look using dark wax

    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

    how to paint vintage furnitureAntique 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
    Website

    Author: Kathy Owen (Petticoat Junktion)
    Kathy is the founder of PetticoatJunktion.com, a home décor blog focused on repurposing and upcycling furniture, old hardware, rusty stuff, and thrifty finds into unique home décor. Kathy’s projects have been featured on the Home Depot Blog, Plaid Crafts, Behr Designer Series, and in numerous magazines. Read more about Kathy here.

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    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Kelly Schulte

      April 11, 2023 at 12:02 pm

      Absolutely STUNNING and I love that custom color you mixed. So pretty. Gonna watch the video now to learn more! Thank you for sharing your knowledge and art with all of us. You are very talented!

      Reply
    2. Megan Harpring

      May 21, 2019 at 7:55 am

      That bed is STUNNING!!! It would match perfectly in my daughter's bedroom Lol you are seriously Brave mixing paints. I Love it

      Reply
    3. Hamilton Billiards

      May 20, 2019 at 10:47 am

      Stunning transformation, the coral colour is really perfect! Thanks for sharing. Carolina at Hamilton Billiards.

      Reply
    4. Kathleen Hicks

      May 16, 2019 at 12:59 pm

      I am always for pretty natural wood, but of course there are exceptions to the rule. I am the person that wrote you about the "antique" white table we got at a yard sale. I haven't decided what colors to use yet, but I am on the way. What I always like about you is you aren't afraid of color, everyone else practally uses white, which isn't me. I don't always agree with your color choice (I'm just that way, nothing personal) but am happy you do use color.

      Reply
      • Kathy Owen

        May 16, 2019 at 2:21 pm

        Thanks for your comment Kathleen. I know some of my makeovers aren't to everyone's taste and that's okay. I too get tired of seeing all white stuff. I remember you emailing me about the table. I say pick a color and go for it. If you don't like it guess what. You can paint it again.

    5. Barbara

      May 16, 2019 at 12:17 pm

      I love, love, love that bed! Such a beautiful color and great job on the makeover! I was surprised what you said about mixing different paints together. I was never brave enough to give that a try, especially with different finishes. Great video, thanks for sharing.

      Reply
      • Kathy Owen

        May 16, 2019 at 12:25 pm

        Yay! Glad you like the bed Barbara. I'm in love with it. I mix paints all the time and I'm sure the paint companies would tell me not to do that. So if you try it just know.....I didn't tell you to, lol. Seriously. I've never had problems doing this.

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    Hi, I'm Kathy!

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