Green Ombré Chest of Drawers

The BEST compliment that a customer can make is to say "We want this piece of furniture to have a cheerful finish -and some pulls in the drawers. As for the rest, do as you think it's best, because we trust your taste" Wow. And woo-hoo!

We agreed that the finish should show the grain of the solid beech wood piece, and that grass green is a cheerful tone indeed. then they left it in my hands. And I had one of my best times renovating a lovely unit!

I went for a swanky, albeit delicate and time-consuming process of applying many layers of thin diluted coats of paint, plus wax and a slight distressing, also creating a graduated scale of greens in the four drawers: the Ombré finish that is now so in vogue. Like this, the grain is still visible through the colour and the wax gives a rustic, less plain look to the piece while adding a soft touch to it.

Here, some close-ups of the chest of drawers -I found this finish very difficult to catch on camera, but then again my camera is just an old, rather basic pocket one. I hope it's enough, though, to get the idea.

This is the cabinet in its original state: fair good shape, except from the third drawer and a little bit of the last one plus a few places in the body that had been attacked by wood worms

So, the first step in the renovation process was of course to treat the whole piece, especially that third drawer

Then, the fun part started: Many thin layers of diluted paint, applied little by little to create a transparent effect and let the lovely wood grain show... I mixed four hues of green, from lighter to darker, to get the Ombré effect on the drawers, and used the middle tone for the top surface.

Then, a light sanding followed by a thin layer of white wax, another light sanding and a darkener cream...

 ...to finish with a slight distressing of all the surfaces -and more protective wax.

Drilling the holes for the drawer knobs - the body of the chest of drawers has several layers of diluted off-white paint, and both the feet and the trim of the top surface are treated with dark wax and a slight distressing, like the green parts.