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Drab to Fab: Antiquing Chairs

Updated: Jun 20, 2019

Hello everyone! This past weekend, Virginia and I filmed a video tutorial on antiquing some gorgeous old chairs! We used Jolie Home's Dove Grey, one of our favorites from the Serenity Collection, as well as some of our favorite Pebeo Gilding Waxes. We love the finished pieces and are so excited to share our technique with you! We've uploaded the video tutorial to our Facebook account and hope that you'll use this blog to follow along!


Here's a list of the products we recommend to complete this project:

1. Jolie Paint in Dove Grey

2. Pebeo Gilding Wax in King Gold and Renaissance

3. Jolie Signature brush small

5. Jolie Finishing Wax in Clear and Brown


Here's what we started with:





STEP 1: Choose your paint color.

- We chose Dove Grey from the Jolie Serenity Collection. You'll need to shake your paint can 30 times. Then set aside a small amount in open air and leave to thicken while you complete your first coat.


STEP 2: Paint on your first coat.

- Using the Jolie Signature brush, quickly brush on your first coat. Your brush technique here will not affect your end product, so just make sure your coverage is to your liking. We chose to leave the detailed areas a little scarce, in order to make the piece look aged.


STEP 3: Paint on your second coat.

- The technique we used is simple and achieves a layered effect, which looks great on aged furniture! Working in small areas at a time, brush light, horizontal strokes against the grain onto your piece, leaving about a half inch of breathing room between each stroke. Give the area about 1 minute to dry slightly. Then, using the same brush. Pull the paint vertically, with the grain, which will fill in the spaces between your original horizontal strokes.


STEP 4: Choose a gilding wax.

- We mixed Pebeo King Gold and Renaissance. We wanted to create a color that looked a bit like gold leaf.


STEP 5: Apply gilding wax to desired areas.

- We used our gilding wax brush for this step because our details were small, but you may use your finger if you like.


STEP 6: Sand with 600 grit sandpaper to smooth the overall texture.

- Be sure to wipe off the dust before beginning Step 7.


STEP 7: Brush on clear wax.

- Make sure to cover the entirety of your piece with clear wax, avoiding the areas where you applied gilding wax. The clear finishing wax will remove the gilding wax.


STEP 8: Follow up with brown wax.

- Apply brown wax to the smooth portions of your piece in the same fashion that you applied your clear wax.


STEP 9: Wipe off excess wax.

- Again, remember not to wipe off your gilding wax! We recommend using cheesecloth for this step.


STEP 10: Wax the details!

- Depending on your piece, you may have areas that are smaller or more detailed than others. You can stipple the brown wax on lightly giving the appearance of wear.


Once you've completed all 10 steps, you should have something beautiful like this to show off to guests in your home!





I especially loved this project because these chairs will be a staple in someone's home. Every person that sits at the dinner table will see the time and creative energy that Virginia and I put in. There is nothing more rewarding than closing the book on a job well done! Please, do let us know if you attempt this tutorial yourself and feel free to ask questions. We are here for you!


Thanks, talk soon!






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