Experimenting with Glaze

I have several pieces of painted furniture in my home that I redid about ten years ago using glaze. I wasn't proud of the results for a number of reasons, but namely, I had no idea what I was doing! My mistakes were numerous: the glaze was homemade, I applied too much glaze in a section at one time which made the glaze difficult to manipulate, and most importantly, I didn't realize how important prep and finishing coats are to achieve professional, gorgeous results.

So when I discovered the General Finishes glaze products, I decided to face my fears and try again. (By the way, this is not a sponsored post, I just love General Finishes products!)

This was a headboard that was not a custom job so I wasn't nervous about making mistakes. After I used a deglossing product (TSP) to thoroughly clean the surface, I primed the headboard with water-based primer. and then painted the bed in General Finishes Antique White. I thought all of the lovely curves and raised areas would be lovely highlighted with General Finishes Burnt Umber Glaze.

I sent several pictures to my sister who had been visiting here in SoCal and was driving home to Texas. She was my captive audience and critic so I sent her these pictures (via my phone - sorry for the picture quality).  I wasn't feeling this first take - we didn't like the stark contrast between the glazed and unglazed areas.

So I painted it over - that's the beauty of glaze - if you make a mistake, or don't like the result you can always paint over and start again!

This time I just added the glaze to the raised areas and I was much happier with the result!

After the glaze was dry, I sealed the entire piece with General Finishes High Performance Top Coat in Satin.

The great news is that the lady who bought this from me became not only a repeat client but a great friend! She is restoring a Craftsman bungalow and has a whole house to furnish! And so when I purchased this side table from a garage sale....I knew immediately it would be a perfect nightstand to complement the headboard.

It came without the hardware which I initially thought wouldn't be a problem because it looked like two drawers originally had French Provincial pulls and the middle one (which actually should be the top one) some sort of drop pulls. I could not for the life of a me find replacement pulls - except for a seller on Ebay that wanted $55 a pull! Well, that wasn't going to happen!

Not a problem - we decided I'd fill in the holes and add crystal knobs instead. Filling in previous holes isn't difficult - it just takes a really long time and patience to prepare the finish for paint. I used an epoxy wood filler and for the final coat, a joint compound to get a perfectly smooth finish.

Didn't she turn out beautiful! Her granddaughter loves turquoise, so I added this paper to the drawers for a little pop of color.

So the moral of the story is, don't be afraid to use glaze. It's actually very easy and if you don't like it, repaint and try again!

I'd love to hear about your own success (or epic fail) stories using glaze! Have a fantastic day and thanks for stopping by!

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