Furniture Flip: A handsome painted chest

Today I’d like to introduce you to Kellie with Design Asylum and Velvet Finishes– one of our new friends from the Haven Conference we attended this summer where we meet up with other DIY-ers, home decor bloggers, interior designers and more! We were talking with Kellie about our love for furniture painting when she casually mentioned that she developed her own special paint recipe – what the what?!?

That’s right, she’s a super cool designer who also decided that none of the paints she was using was meeting her needs exactly, so she helped develop her own recipe for a new special paint called Velvet Finishes. Like me, she’s a little impatient and likes to move quickly on her paint projects – the less steps the better!

This paint is super easy to use! Like her website says, it’s a no prime, no sand, no chalk, no wax furniture paint formula that will rock your world.

So I’ve been a little obsessed with the color navy these last few months. I love how it pairs with brassy vintage gold home accents and it’s been showing up in my wardrobe as well!

I like true navy colors that are clearly blue and not black – without question. And the Velvet Finishes Handsome color fits that description.

Here’s an old chest (or toy trunk) we picked up from an auction recently. It was in pretty good shape but I didn’t care for the stained finish.

I’m also really digging the navajo or native american type prints that are popular in both fashion and home decor right now. The large, smooth area on top was a perfect place to give this piece a little character.

But, first we applied Velvet Finishes Ready to the entire outside. It’s a special cleaning spray that you apply to your furniture to remove the extra dirt, grime and glossy finish – remember, no sanding! Just spray and wipe away.

Velvet Finishes paints also work really well with paint sprayers, so I grabbed my new Homeright Finish Max and Spray Shelter and went to town. It feels like the lazy girl way to paint… and I LOVE it.

This color really is ah-mazing and works so well with the paint sprayer! These pictures don’t even do it justice. After I stenciled it, I distressed it lightly around the edges. Because this piece will be opened an closed frequently, I also decided to add a top coat to protect it. Velvet Finishes has one of those too, called Protect. It’s a non-yellowing commercial grade polyurethane.

I love how it turned out and I think it will complement all the rich plaids that are so on-trend right now! #madforplaid

Here are some of the other rich Velvet Finishes colors to choose from.

Just make sure you add Protect and Ready to your order too – you’ll love how all three work together. Notice this bottle of Ready is less than half full in this pic… that’s because I love it so much I’m using it on EVERY PROJECT before I paint.

Oh, and since I already had my sprayer out, I decided to give this chair a Handsome Velvet Finishes paint makeover too! I painted the chair back with a little chalkboard paint and recovered the seat in plaid to finish it off.

I also painted this mirror thrifted from a yard sale (see below)…

Oh, this blue paired with gold accents is so chic! The picture above is from our holiday market. And that’s where I sold the handsome painted chest! Stay tuned for more a recap from our market, coming soon.

Cheers!