A Walk on the Wild Side!

A Walk on the Wild Side
I love it when a designer asks me to paint their clients' existing furniture.  Some of the designs are so much fun and so different from the original that you'd NEVER know it was the same piece! 

If I've never done a particular finish, I will sometimes do a "practice" piece to work out the kinks on one of my own pieces instead of the designers.  More on that in a moment.

I was asked to change this charming chest of drawers from demure to wild zebra!  What a difference!  The idea came from the creative mind of Kristin Drohan (if you check out her website/blog, the console table in her header may look familiar... http://www.boulevardinteriordesign.com/)

Remember I mentioned practice?  Well, here's my practice piece:

I picked up this dry sink at a yard sale for $12 and decided to use it for our liquor cabinet in our dining room.  Because the doors open from the center, I opted not to do the center stripe that Kristin had requested on hers.  I had a piece of mirror cut (also around $12) by the local glazier (glass cutter) for the inside back panel to add a little sparkle.  You can just see the reflection of the crystal bowl in the mirror.  The inside I painted black and on  the doors wrote the saying
"With wine in hand, one reaches the happy state,
Where men are wise,
Women beautiful,
And even one's own children begin to look promising"
...it always makes me laugh!

I can't tell you how many compliments I receive on this piece.  Keep in mind though, that when you are using something that really stands out, like a zebra pattern, a little goes a long way!  You could look like you live at the zoo if you go too overboard!

Here are a few other ideas to check out and how I would paint them:

I found this console table at the left at http://interiorsmadeeezzy.com/category/furniture/occasional-tables/ and love the fact that it is an animal print, zebra again, but because it is all one color, it's much more subtle!  I would do this by using a matte finish on my base coat and then a gloss finish for the stripes, and probably the legs and top as well.  This may be a future project for me - I really like how it adds texture to the piece. 

The photo on the left is another example.  This time leopard and a silvery finish from furnituredirectnc.com.  Benjamin Moore paints have some beautiful metallic finishes and I would use one of them over a grey or brown basecoat to get the silvery finish on the sides and top.  The cool silvery tones with the warm browns and blacks of the leopard print are not usually paired together, but I like it. 

Of course it doesn't have to be a console table.  A little animal print on a barstool, chair, throw rug or even a mirror frame can add just that little touch of wild for you.  I found this chair on juliekfournier.com.   Somehow the mix of prints are adorable in a child chair!  Of course, for a child, we can always go over the top!

 Now I can feel you looking around your home for something to paint in an animal print...what will it be?  Have fun, be daring and GO WILD!