Shabby to Chic Painting Tutorial

Hello everyone! We've had cold rainy weather in my part of the world this week. So I've been spending some time indoors sorting through my collection of "things to be painted". I came across a couple of pieces that I've collected in my travels, that definately needed a makeover. So while I was working on these little projects I thought, why not put a step-by-step tutorial for this on my blog.

Making something look "chic" from "shabby" is a fairly simple procedure and doesn't require any great skill, just time and patience really. There a probably lots of you out there who already are familiar with this technique and have their own way of achieving it. But I'd like to show you how I do it, step by step.

The pieces I'm using are an old style mirror on a stand and 3 candlesticks, that I really thought had potential for this with all the little sculptured roses around the bottom of each one. Also the frame around the mirror, as well as the stand has some lovely sculptured flowers, leaves, scrolls etc.

Step One: First you need to clean the pieces up before you prime them for painting. I used an old paintbrush dipped in metholated spirit, or depending on the surface you can just use warm soapy water. For some surfaces the spirit is too harsh. The brush is good for getting into all the crevices. You can just use a cloth on the smooth areas.

Step Two: Now you need to prime your pieces. I used Dulux 1step primer, sealer and undercoat prepcoat. This is a great product and makes an easy job of priming. If you already have a good quality all purpose sealer on hand, you can use this also.

Step 3: As these items are quite delicate they only need a very gentle sanding. I just used a scrunched up paper bag.  Now the fun part, applying the first coat of paint. I've used Matisse White Basecoat paint, but you could use any acrylic paint of your choice, in either white or cream, or a nice pastel colour. Just a tip; If you are new to this sort of painting just make sure that you coninually keep a look out for any drips and runs of paint and smooth them out before they dry and spoil your work.