Painted Furniture- A Celebration

Chinese Painted Furniture

Painted Furniture- A Celebration

People often complain that faux finishing furniture is modern fakery for people who want their decor aged immediately and have no interest in originality or history. Faux finishing has though been used for millennia, in fact since the advent of furniture.

Secretaire Desk Eau de Nil

Faux painting became popular in classical times in the forms of faux marble and fauxwood. Great recognition was awarded to artists who could actually trick viewers into believing their work was the real thing. 

So we have a great tradition over thousands of years and a history of noble craftsmanship and endevour. The French Secretaire Desk Eau de Nil to the left is a fabulous example of the art of painted furniture and of course there are many other fine examples of the art. Enough to put you off painting furniture for life isn't it!

So here's the thing. As with everything in life there are some traditions and rules that will assist you especially in that initial period of learning but then also rules are for breaking! I've been bending the rules around paint for years. It started with a commitment to using natural non toxic paints to replace all of the techniques using petrochemical paints. So for instance instead of using a conventional Crackle to produce crackle glaze effects I started using Gum Arabic as a crackle medium. Gum Arabic is used as a glaze for cakes and sweets such as jelly beans and therefore completely harmless and in fact edible!

Crackle and Decoupage using Gum Arabic

Also for natural woodstains using things like the water from boiling beetroot (or beetroot powder could be used) or Turmeric Powder and Paprika Powder mixed with a a little water and water based glaze. It also all smells great although you may wonder why you get pangs of hunger whenever you walk past the hall table you stained! Below is what Turmeric stain looks like, although my ability to photograph such a subtle and beautiful effect is severely lacking.

Turmeric and Glaze Mix

I've also used what I have since discovered is a traditional carpenters stain using vinegar to produce a very dark wood stain. You can find out how to do this if you visit our website                                  www.iekoenvironments.co.uk . The stain is made using malt vinegar which has been left to stand overnight with wire wool soaked in it. If applied to oak' the vinegar- which has now turned a rusty colour from the wire wool -reacts with the tannins in the oak and turns it a lovely silvery grey.

Vinegar and Tea Stain

Another process I was so put off by until I broke some rules was Gilding. If done 'properly' and traditionally you will need the following equipment:

Gilding Supplies - Gilding Tools:
Gilder's pad and knife, for handling and cutting leaf
Gilder's tip
Burnishers - tools for rubbing
Gilding Supplies Gilding Materials:
Gold Leaf
Rabbit skin glue (used in gesso and clay mixtures)
Clay (bole)
Gilding materials for toning

Ok great but what if I don't want to spend £150 and be trained over months?

I have found a technique that works and works especially well for an older antiqued look using gold leaf (well actually gold leaf substitute!), a soft brush and some beeswax. Method: spread the wax on the surface, place the leaf on the wax using the paper backing, rub on and then use the soft brush to firm down. Pour yourself a glass of wine, sit down and admire! The example below was achieved by placing the leaf (this gold leaf already had a beautiful mottled effect) on wood that had been painted with an Oriental Red Pigment mixed with water and glaze. I then used the same pigment in a little wax and rubbed over.

Guilding With Antique Effect

So what I'm trying to get across here is not a whole new set of rules and limitations but a message to you to break the rules and experiment and above all have some fun with it as this is what will show in the end result. Below is a fabulous example of someone willing to go out on a limb and experiment.

Handpainted Armoire By Lucas Rise

If you are ever in East Sussex an essential thing to do is visit Charleston House www.charleston.org.uk
home to Vanessa bell and Duncan Grant and the hub for the Bloomsbury group of artists, writers and intellectuals.

Duncan Grant Painted Door

The rooms on show form a complete example of the decorative art of the Bloomsbury artists: murals, painted furniture, ceramics, objects from the Omega Workshops, paintings and textiles. There is a real demonstration at Charleston of freedom of expression using an array of medium to paint on practically anything that comes to hand.

The Main Living Room- Charleston

The Fireplace At Charleston

Painted Lampbase- Charleston

Below is a list of some of the traditional painted furniture techniques used throughout the ages:

Neoclassical: revival of the nineteenth century and the Art Deco styles of the 1920s.
Marbleizing: or faux marbling is used to make walls and furniture look like real marble.
Graining wood graining, or faux bois (French for "fake wood") is often used to imitate exotic or hard-to-find wood varieties. It was also used extensively as a way of protecting wood by an imitation of the grain that could be re grained when the wood was damaged or had become worn.
Trompe l'oeil: "trick the eye" in French, is a realistic painting technique often used in murals, and to create architectural details.
Colour Wash: is a free-form finish that creates subtle variations of color using multiple hues of glaze blended together with a paint brush.
Strie: from the French for "stripe" or "streak", is a glazing technique that creates soft thin streaks of colour using a paint brush. It is a technique often used to simulate fabrics such as linen and denim.