Well Worn does Mid-Century Modern? Who knew? Well, not usually, if you're familiar with our style we're more of a "beat-up, patina, rustic meets bling" type of style. I'm not sure what that style is, but that's what we do. A little masculine, and a little feminine, a little confused. So this is a stretch for me. I've been dying to try an ombre' effect on a piece of furniture for some time now. Ombre' is a set of colors or tones that shade into each other.
Why the wait? I had a Mid-Century Modern piece in my mind's eye. Mid-Century Modern furniture is sort of hot in our neck of the woods and can be a bit pricey. The other hold up is that I didn't want to paint a nice piece with a nice finish. I feel the same way about some of the antique items that I see painted. Don't misunderstand me, I love a painted piece of furniture, (if I didn't I wouldn't be a retailer for Annie Sloan Chalk Paint TM) but it has to be the right piece. I think that if you increase the value and appearance of a piece, than of course, paint it! As always, I'm writing down a rabbit trail...
So, Mr. Well Worn and I stumble across a piece that is uuuugggglly the other day, and to his surprise, I say I'll take it. I had him check all the drawers and the sturdiness of the piece first and then into the truck bed he goes (the dresser, not Mr. Well Worn). I can hardly wait to get started. First we give it a light sanding of the drawers and sides and then with a much heavier than anticipated sanding of the top. It seems that there is NEVER an easy transformation. There is usually at least one hitch in the adventure of transformations, the dresser top was it. After the sanding I actually primed this piece lightly. It had a slight odor, nothing bad or noticeable to anyone but me, but it was a little "woodsy". I decided it wasn't worth the risk. I didn't want to paint all of those drawers with custom mixed colors and then have to redo it, if the odor was still there. I also was curious as to how it would look white. I don't paint much with white. I like my colors to be a little more "muddy" so, I needed an actual visual on this one. I wanted to make sure that I was going down the right path. Once it was lightly primed, I got to work. The whole dresser is painted with Chalk Paint TM. The layers or ombre' is as follows:
100% Old Ochre
50% Old Ochre & 50% Coco
100% Coco
Coco & Graphite, Old Ochre, I forgot the ratio ---More about this later---
50% Coco & 50% Graphite
100% Graphite
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| Here it is inside at Well Worn |
The fourth shade was the second hitch in this transformation. I initially painted that drawer 50% Coco & 50% Graphite. I didn't feel as if it blended as much as I wanted it to, so I painted the bottom layer Graphite to get a better idea of how the shades would blend, it just wasn't working. I decided to add Old Ochre to the existing color of the fourth layer. After it was mixed I painted a little on a paint stirrer and held it up to the drawers that had already been painted. Since it was the look I was going for I just crossed my fingers and hoped there was enough paint to do both sides. Once in a
while it's better to be lucky than good.
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| Here it is outside, the colors aren't as rich in the sun |
The rest of the dresser was painted with Pure White and the whole thing was waxed with clear wax.
Oh, the name? Two reasons. Hombre means man, and I thought it looked a little more masculine than feminine; although I think it's a piece that could work just about anywhere. Secondly, in true guy fashion, when I was trying to explain ombre' to Mr. Well Worn, he kept saying, "Hombre, like dude?" Yep, that's my guy.
I finally resulted to Pinterest and was able to pull up a few lovely pieces to give him the visual. I was initially inspired by one of the pins I had seen briefly in the past. I couldn't "pin" which one, since it was so long ago, but there is some beautiful work out there, check it out.
Check Mid-Century Modern with a Twist off our bucket list!
Don't be afraid to leave your comfort zone,
Melony
