How To Add Detail To Furniture

The pressure is on to get things ready for my upcoming sale.

And time is ticking too.

I’ve had this old dresser for many years.

I fell for the curves on this sweet piece.

But it was lacking details.

Here is how to add detail to furniture using gold wax.

Let me warn you these photos were shot in my garage.

Since I am hosting a sale in a few weeks, I didn’t want to haul this in my house, only to haul it back out into the garage.

Here is the before shot, yeah I know it’s pretty dark and grainy.

This piece was painted a flat white several years ago.

I painted this dresser two coats of French Butter from my signature paint line.

After the paint was dry, and by the way this paint dries very fast.

Yes, I finished this project in a few hours.

So after the paint was dry I took out gold gilding wax, and scotchblue painters tape.

I wanted a nice stripe all the way around the knobs on the drawers.

I didn’t measure, I just eyeballed it.

Make sure to press  the tape down firmly so you don’t get any bleeding.

Next I took an old t-shirt rag, dipped the t-shirt into my wax, then applied a small amount of wax onto my piece.

Only adding the wax to my area that I wanted a gold stripe.

Make sure to rub it in well if you are using wax.

Once you take the tape off you can’t rub the wax in.

If you do, you’ll make a mess.

Now a little FYI, if you can’t purchase a gold gilding wax, just find a gold acrylic paint.

If you use the paint apply with a small brush.

Okay, so once your done applying the wax you can carefully remove the tape.

As you can see I also added a little wax to my drawer knobs, using the same method as the stripe.

I had a little boo-boo, you can see a very small touch of wax that got onto my drawer.

On the upper right hand side.

No big deal, I just need to touch that up with my French Butter paint.

I used this technique on two of my drawers.

I was going to do this on all of my drawers, but then I remembered that Cutting Edge Stencils sent me a few small Fleur De Lis stencils.

So instead of adding a stripe to my two other drawers I decided to add a stencil.

Now, for the stencil, I did measure to make sure it was in the center of my drawer.

Then I taped my stencil on to my drawer, and applied my wax again using a t-shirt.

I was trying to be careful not to get bleeding, but I did get just a touch of it.

Which is fine, because you know me, I never look for perfection.

Please don’t look too carefully at our garage floor.

It’s going to get a good cleaning before and after my sale.

I really love how this turned out.

So much prettier than a plan dresser.

The gold stripe adds a touch of detail.

Something this piece was lacking.

This dresser would make a wonderful lingerie chest.

Or in a dinning room to store linens.

I love that this piece has wheels on it too.

Something you don’t always find with old pieces.

Many times the wheels are missing.

Oh, so to hide disguise  my garage door for these photos, I added a few curtains that I taped on the door.

And I stuck an old rug under the dresser, well partly under the dresser.

I promise this will not be my new spot for shooting photos.

It just made it easier for me for this particular post.

So, what are you going to add stripes too?