Creating effects with Patina Paint

This 1920’s antique dresser came out beautiful! My goal for this project was to learn how to use Dixie Belle patina paints to make this dresser look like it has rust around the edges. I don’t know if I achieved that look but I love the way it turned out.

I have to give credit to Salvaged Inspirations (How to Paint Patina) for giving me the inspiration for this piece. I loved her work so much that I wanted to try it for myself as I learned how to use the Patina line of paints. I am so appreciative of artists who are willing to teach and share their methods.

The Before:

This dresser is a 1920’s Antique Widdicomb style. It was in beautiful shape for the most part. If you look closely, you will be able to see that the carving at the bottom is broken on one side. At the time, I didn’t really have the knowledge to fix this, so I cut off the other side so that it matched. You can’t even tell! It had a few places where it was missing a little of the veneer so I filled that in with some wood filler.

After cleaning, I primed all of it and sanded the top clean because my plan was to stain….talk about that later.
*Learning point -Did you know that wood veneers date back to Ancient Egypt? Nearly 4,000 years ago, the earliest veneers were being applied to the tombs of the pharaohs to add decorative flair. (jacaranda.com) Just as in this piece, veneers were used to create interesting designs and patterns without using solid wood. This made the piece lighter in weight and preserved wood that might be hard to find.

One thing that I am learning as I work on each project is to take PICTURES! I am so sorry, but I did not take pictures of my process. I promise I will get better!

After all of the prep work, I layered several paint colors to create what I call my Stormy Seas custom paint. I will list the paints at the end of the article. As you can see in the pictures below, I painted with a random, crisscross stroke. I wanted that texture! I added the different colors and blended them together, more in some places than others. There is no right way to do this, just do it until you like it.

After letting the paint dry, I added the Dixie belle Iron patina paint to the outside edges of the dresser, front, sides and legs and also to various places I wanted to accent. Again, put it on however you want. You can’t mess this up! When using patina paints, you let the first coat dry. I then added the 2nd coat of the Iron Patina paint and while it was wet, sprayed it with the Green patina spray. You will see the patina develop as it sets. After letting it dry, I thought it needed more, so I went back and did the process again in certain areas.

I was planning on staining the top but I ended up mixing the Iron and Copper patina paints and created this rich brown mix that actually looks like stain. I applied Gator Hide to the top only to protect that surface. I used Patina Guard on the areas where I used the patina paints and Wise Owl Hemp Furniture Salve-Unscented on the rest of the painted areas of the dresser. I painted the hardware a coppery color and accented the designs with it as well.

The inside of the drawers were in great shape but they smelled musty. So I treated them with Wise Owl Hemp Furniture Salve in Teakwood and Amber and they smelled amazing!