Two years ago, I refinished six French chairs I had gotten on Craigslist. The chairs had a dark stain and would need to be stripped. So began one of the most arduous time-consuming tasks I have ever done and for me that is saying a lot. It took several weeks to complete but, in the end, the final results were worth it! The next step was using wax to seal them before sending them off to be reupholstered. To my dismay after applying the wax it gave the chairs an orange yellow tone. They were still beautiful but not exactly what I wanted. But I could live with it because there was no way I was doing them over.
Until now two years later I am ready to try a wash technique to tone down the orange yellow tone.
Let’s see what happened!

These are the chairs before I refinished them.




I used a toothbrush; kebob sticks and elbow grease to get into all the crevices and reveal all the detail.

This is what happened after putting on the wax it brought out the orange yellow tone again.

It had nothing to do with Annie Sloan clear wax I could have put water on it and it would still bring out that tone.

Using Annie Sloan Old White Chalk Paint, I made a wash.

I sprayed five pumps of water into the dish with the paint and mixed it.

Using a lint free cloth, I dipped it in the mixture and wiped off any extra before applying.

I wiped the wash on the chair surface making sure to get into the detail.


The change was immediate. It looked just like it did before I added the wax.

It was easy to do and yes, I could kick myself for not doing it sooner.

I love the results! Just five more to go!