Painted Casework

[Todd Burch]

While I was antiquing with my wife this last weekend, I was really drawn to stop and look at several pieces of painted casework. I really like the look of painted casework. Stained is certainly nice, but a misplaced piece of wild grain here, or uninteresting grain there, and a piece can become an eyesore quickly.

With paint, you can do SO, SO much. With the same piece, you can achieve crisp and pristine, or worn and tired, all simply by your choice of colors and effects.

Paint can't overcome bad proportions, blocky construction or shoddy construction. But a good paint job can give a piece a unique look and a character all its own.

Here are a few shots of pieces that caught my eye. Can't wait until I get to make my next painted piece... that's not WHITE!!!

Enjoy. Todd

[Jim Becker]

Todd, I'm sure you also noticed that these pieces exhibit a lot of good design, too. Paint made a lot of sense in that much of the locally made furniture was made from materials on hand...even multiple species sometimes. Try to catch the second episode of the NYW windsor chair project from last season...it was a great lesson on re-creating a well-used layered finish on a period piece.