A DIY Network Feature and Winter Painting
A French Linen and Gold chest earns a spot on DIY Network, while the realities of painting furniture through a frozen February take over the house.
The Painted Drawer · February 2015
Some weeks bring a happy surprise. This one came courtesy of DIYNetwork.com, where a “Trash to Treasure” feature turned up a familiar face: the French Linen and Gold vintage chest finished a few weeks earlier. Seeing a piece you restyled featured by one of your most-watched networks is more than a little thrilling — the kind of small milestone that makes all the sanding and waxing feel worthwhile.
Painting indoors in deep winter
February is not kind to furniture painters. With the temperatures well below freezing, every project has to move indoors, and the house pays the price. The kitchen gets taken over, the workroom fills up, and pieces in various stages of paint and wax start quietly creeping into the living room. Spring cannot come soon enough — but the work does not stop just because the weather turns.
The Baker secretary currently in progress is already transforming with only its first coat of Annie Sloan Old Ochre, a soft, creamy shade from the Annie Sloan Chalk Paint colour range. Even a single coat is enough to see where a piece is headed.
Tip of the day: save your brush
Here is a small trick that makes winter painting far more bearable when life keeps interrupting:
When you step away from a project mid-coat, wrap your brush tightly in plastic wrap. Run all your errands — the whole day’s worth — and the brush will still be soft, loaded, and ready to go when you return. No rinsing, no drying out, no waste.
It is one of those habits that saves both brushes and time, especially when painting has to be squeezed in between everything else a day demands.
Keeping momentum through the cold
There is a certain camaraderie among furniture painters fed up with winter — kitchens commandeered, projects encroaching on every flat surface, all of us waiting for the warm days to return. But the indoor months are also when the work quietly piles up in the best way. A feature on a major network, a secretary coming along beautifully, and a few good tricks to keep things moving make even a frozen February feel productive.