There is one notorious piece of mine that gets a lot of attention whenever I share it… Velvet Honey! It is one of my favorite pieces of furniture I’ve ever painted. We featured it in the 6th volume of The Turquoise Iris Journal and it got rave reviews. The tutorial was exclusive to subscribers until last month, when I shared it on YouTube. Despite some controversy over on YouTube, this piece managed to sell rather quickly and for more money than any of my other pieces! That just goes to show that staying true to your artistic vision is much more valuable than painting something that everyone will love. I think the reason this piece is such a topic of conversation is because I probably used every single paint color I own (and invented a few new colors!) to create a custom finish. For that reason, it’s the perfect example to use when I talk to my Creative Connection community members about how to blend paint on furniture.
Why I Blend Many Paint Colors on Furniture
Why do I blend so many different colors of paint directly on my furniture? Because it creates an unforgettable, custom finish that brings me joy just to look at it! The first time I used more than one or two colors on a piece of furniture was also the first time I felt the little spark of creativity inside me grow into a burning passion for color. When I blend paint on furniture, I feel like a color alchemist; manipulating the spectrum into layers of hues that meld together so well you can’t tell where one color begins and another ends. My hope is that, when people see my furniture, their first thought is the same as mine… That’s magical!
The wardrobe I call Velvet Honey became a massive explosion of color! And I mean literally massive; have never seen such a tall, stunning piece in my life. (Side note… I found this wardrobe on Facebook Marketplace. While I was out purchasing it, I ended up finding another wardrobe and two vintage cars! It was a very lucky day for me!)
Some folks on YouTube got pretty annoyed that I “ruined” this piece by painting it. While I don’t believe that anything is “ruined” by turning it into art, I can understand why preserving historical artifacts is important. Fortunately, we can all rest easy with the knowledge that this is not an antique and is just a reproduction!
How to Blend Paint on Furniture
If you read my post about painting furniture without brush strokes, then you know that I almost always prefer to use DIY Paint for my furniture makeovers because it is made from clay using only nine ingredients and has five times the pigments of any other paint I’ve used. I get incredible coverage and beautiful results without having to go through gallons of paint! Plus, the clay is reactivated with water, which is my secret weapon when I want to blend paint on furniture seamlessly.
Supplies
- Liquid Sunshine
- Old 57
- Seaglass
- Firestarter
- Monet’s Garden
- Bohemian Blue
- The Bohemian Brights collection from DIY Paint
- Golden Ticket
- Clear Wax
- Hey Sailor DIY Paint mixed with phyllo blue acrylic paint
- Raw Sienna acrylic paint
- Fluorescent Red acrylic paint
- Burnt Sienna acrylic paint
- Water Girl Continuous Spray Bottle
- Caddie brush by Paint Pixie
- Brayer
Order DIY Paint in my shop!
Blend Paint On Furniture Using Water
There are two tricks for getting a really good blend of colors that doesn’t turn muddy or messy: wet paint and fast work! I use a continuous spray bottle to keep the paint wet so that I can quickly blend my colors together. Because I use DIY Paint which has a clay-based formula, the pigments bond with the water and each other for a seamless blend. I use a large brush with long, soft bristles called the Caddie by Paint Pixie because it allows me to cover a wider surface quickly even if it has a lot of nooks and crannies like Velvet Honey.
Blend Paint in Complementary Colors on Furniture
I began the makeover using shades of yellow, working down through some light greens into intense blues. When you’re using as many colors as I did, it’s important to keep your color theory in mind. Mixing complementary colors (blue and orange, yellow and purple, red and green) directly together is what can lead to a muddy color. But that doesn’t mean it’s impossible to use as many colors as you want! If you’re going to blend complementary paint colors on furniture, then you might want to try using one of my favorite tools… A brayer!
Instead of using a brush and water to mix orange and blue, I used a brayer to add layers of color and texture.. Once I saw that bright orange, my imagination took off! I layered bright pink over the green, a deep magenta over the yellow, and just kept adding colors until my heart soared. To achieve the final finish, I layered and layered and layered that paint on there.
My goal for this piece was to honor the original beauty of the piece while exploring my love of color and maximalism! I varied the shades of each hue to create depth, blending each color gently into the next and adding acrylic paints and gold where I wanted really bold highlights. I sealed the entire piece with a clear wax so that the colors would stay bold and bright forever!
The entire tutorial is available on YouTube if you want to see the transformation from start to finish!
What do you think of this makeover?
