The sun is setting as I write this post and I have to tell you, I’m so excited to share the pictures of this piece with all of you!

I loved it when I purchased it then I got it home and for the life of me, couldn’t decide what to do with it. So it settled into it’s new space in my garage until last week.

I had a general idea of how I wanted to do it but it sure evolved over the course of a couple weeks. I wanted to create some kind of old world paint finish that would represent years of wear and tear.

French Country Armoire Shizzle Design, ideas, gray, furniture, chalk, clay, American Paint Company, Michigan dry brush side

You’re going to think I’m crazy for how I started it, but I wanted to create a colorful base coat that would make it look as though it had been painted many times over the years. I loved the blue and purple that peaked through on the inspiration piece I saw online. It’s funny to look back at it now because it looks nothing like what I ended up with but hey ~ ya gotta start somewhere!

I busted out some of Purple Mountain Majesty, Desert Cactus and Blue Jeans from American Paint Company and started slapping it on like a wild woman. What can I say? I was on a roll.

French Country Armoire Shizzle Design, ideas, furniture, chalk, clay, American Paint Company, Michigan experimenting

Stay with me here, this is just my base coat. I wanted a light neutral and Rushmore’s gorgeous taupe fit the bill. I poured my paint into a little bowl and diluted it with a little water slapping it on with random brush strokes to cover everything.

I had already painted the details with Freedom Road. It’s a deep slate color which looks similar to Lincoln’s Hat until it dries. That’s when you can see Freedom Road is slate and Lincoln’s Hat is black. Anyway, I painted the crown molding with Freedom Road then dry brushed with a little Desert Cactus.

Then came the fun part ~ I used a damp rag to wet distress/remove the Rushmore which started revealing some of the initial colors.

It looked cool but after I had finished the front of it, I stepped back and realized doing the entire piece like this would be WAY too much.

I had to break it up.

It was late, dark and I was tired and crabby that it wasn’t turning out how I had planned so I painted over the door inserts with Desert Cactus and after it was dry, did a crazy wet wash using Lincoln’s Hat.

French Country Armoire Shizzle Design, ideas, purple, blue, furniture, chalk, clay, American Paint Company, Michigan 12