3. White Shows Everything
I painted several pieces in our home white, including my kitchen table. Although I love the look, I have come to realize that white shows EVERYTHING. If I had known then what I know now, I would have applied at least 3-4 clear coats of polyurethane or any finish coat, over each piece.
Every few months my kitchen table needs a magic eraser to fully remove a spot and that will remove a small amount of paint every time. Its best to use extra protection over white to enable you to use more aggressive cleaning methods if you need to.
4. Distressing
Make sure the wood underneath is dark. If you are distressing your piece, it looks fantastic to have dark wood showing through. If the wood underneath is too light, it won’t look at striking. Another option is to apply dark wax to the parts where the wood is showing through. That will help create more contrast.
5. White Matching White
Before painting a piece white, keep in mind that there are many variations and shades of white, cream and off white. If you are matching a piece to other pieces in a room, just make sure you have done sufficient color matching to make sure the piece won’t stand out as looking ‘off’ or a different shade of white than the rest!
