A question from Wister5: "I've noticed the trend for using painted furniture as color accents in a room lately. Do you think this can be incorporated in a home with a modern flair, or is it strictly still too country/craftsman?"
We think the key is the finish...the shabby-chic rubbed finish, peeling paint or distressed look would not work as well as a high-gloss lacquer type of paint job. We'd go for as slick and polished a finish as possible to avoid the country/craftsman connotation.
We love the look of colorfully painted furniture and feel it works wonderfully in a modern room. We choose the image of the blue console above, from Red Egg, because we think it is a great example of how powerful color can be - especially in a pared down white space. A basic expandable table becomes something totally fresh when done up in a paint finish, like this example from Maine Cottage.
In fact, we think that classic modern pieces, with their pared down shapes often are the best candidate for a paint treatment - the added impact of color really works on clean, simple-lined furniture. Parsons tables are often shown in color, for example.
Readers: Any advice on painted furniture for modern homes? Shops? Inspiration photos? Pieces you like or own? DIY do's and don'ts? Let us know in the comments below...
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Comments (9)
I just saw something in the May issue of LivingEtc about taking your furniture to an auto shop and having them spray it, for a high gloss/shine? finish.
My question is: do most auto shops do this? Or only specific kinds?
my response is a classic andy warhol quote: "everything goes with eveything."
don't get caught up in any rules!
I think it's a great blend and 2nd the use of a high-gloss finish.... but then again, i love bold and rich color regardless of the setting.
I think The Conran Shop's use of this with some of the colorful high-gloss pieces it carries illustrates that it works really well.
From a DIY standpoint, sanding the piece down is KEY when it comes to really pulling this off. We've done two pieces of wood furniture over in high-gloss black. The one where we took the time to REALLY sand it down fully turned out really sharp and glossy. The other..... well, not so strong.
I bought a big dresser off of craig's list already painted a seafoam green color. It's basically the only furniture I have in room beside the bed, and the rest of the room is white with black accents. I love how the dresser pops out as the focal point and I think it also highlights the simplicity of the black and white. I think having one eye-catching piece and the rest clean and simple can still manage to feel modern and streamlined.
I have a Heywood Wakefield "ant leg" side table that I painted. The original finish was in terrible condition, and I'd heard that it's a hard finish to duplicate. My apartment has lots of moldings (baseboards and crown moldings), so I painted the table the same shade of white as the moldings, and it looks great! One thing for a classic piece like that, I taped over the mark and label on the underside so if I or anyone ever wanted to return it to its original condition, that will always be intact.
http://moderndose.com/
mob -- Please post pics! Your b&w bedroom with the seafoam dresser must be gorgy-licious.
I had a mannequin torso painted at my local auto-painting shop. I asked them to use any light color they were spraying at the time. After she dried I taped off a design and took her back for a contrasting color to give her a design. They masked the areas to remain the original color, then sprayed on gloss black. The finish is amazing and made my design even better than I dreamed.
Now I have an original sculpture that didn't cost me too much ... I'm sure partly because of the entertainment value the project provided the shop guys.
Isn't the point of modern to often break rules? I say do what ever you want!