Refinishing French Chairs With A Faux Wood Finish!

In previous blogs, I have mentioned stripping six French dining chairs and the amount of work it took. I was so burned out by the experience that it took two years to even contemplate refinishing the armchairs that were part of the set. I took them out of storage and had them sitting in my office for a week and knew I still wasn’t ready to go through the whole stripping process again. But I had to do something because I really disliked the color of the wood.

I wanted a wood finish without the work, so I turned to chalk paint. I had created a faux wood finish on a half-circle table in the past and decided to give that a try again.

As a base I painted the chairs with two coats of Annie Sloan Old White Chalk Paint and two coats of French Linen Chalk Paint.

Once it was dry, I applied a wash of Waverly Antique Wax and water.

The combination of the antique wax and the chalk paint underneath created movement like you see in real wood. I let it dry overnight before going to next step.

The color is beautiful, but I would like it to look a bit more aged.

Always start with clear wax; it makes working with colored wax much easier.

The white wax is definitely lightening the color. You can see the difference in the back leg to the front.

I am very pleased with the results it definitely looks like real wood. Next on the agenda is picking out fabric to recover them with.

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