What do you do when you can’t find the desk of your dreams? You make it of course! And that’s just what Orphans With Makeup did, starting with some legs from an old sewing machine table.
Visit her site to grab the entire construction tutorial, but if you’re here for how to get the beautiful shade of mustardy yellow (aka the Tuscan look), you’re in the right place!
The Tuscan Modern Farmhouse is a layered paint look, so you’ll need a few shades of the same colour, as well as Fresco texture powder to get the farmhouse look. The rest of the magic comes from the waxes.
Supplies needed to create a Tuscan Modern Farmhouse Paint Finish
- “Garden Seed” Homestead House milk paint
- “Prairie Sunset” Homestead House milk paint
- “Provincial Walnut” Homestead House milk paint → assuming you’re working from a dark base
- Fresco Texture Powder
- Homestead House Furniture Wax
- Homestead House Antiquing Wax
- Sponge
- Brushes
To see how to mix Milk Paint click here
STEP 1
PREP
Sand and clean any extra dust off the surface you’re going to paint. A prepped surface is the best surface.
STEP 2
PAINTING THE BASE
In this case, the desk does not have a consistent base colour, so before applying the yellows and Fresco, you want to make sure the colours will sit the same way across the entire piece.
You’ll do this by painting the entire piece one colour to start - in this case, the legs were already brown, so we used Homestead House’s Provincial Walnut Milk Stain (mixed in equal parts pigment & water) to create a uniform base.
STEP 3
BASE YELLOW COAT
Start by applying the darkest of your coats - in this case “Garden Seed” Homestead House milk paint. Garden Seed is a lovely rich shade, which provides a great textural base for lighter colours.
STEP 4
ADDING TEXTURE POWDER
As a general rule, you want to add the texture to the second colour, since it will create the effect of aged plaster walls (a la Tuscan castle). In this case, we’re adding Fresco Texture Powder to Homestead House Milk Paint’s Prairie Sunset.
Fresco Texture Powder is what you’ll use when you want to add any kind of texture. You just mix it into your paint. Since it will also act as a thickening agent, you want to make sure that your milk paint consistency isn’t too runny, or it won’t take properly. You want your paint to be the consistency of a milk shake before you add the Fresco powder.
STEP 5
CREATING DEPTH WITH TEXTURE & COLOUR
Beyond adding the Fresco powder to Prairie Sunset, if you apply the paint in a variety of ways, you’ll get more naturally occurring depth in the application.
Brush it on vertically, then horizontally, and for an added pizzazz (and to break up the linear look) use a natural sponge to pounce some fresco powder.
STEP 6
FINAL COAT OF YELLOW
Let the fresco application dry for a few hours before doing anything else. Once dry, apply a final coat of Garden Seed (your initial colour), and then sand to reveal peaks and valleys in the paint colours.
STEP 7
SEALING THE DESK
It’s easy to paint and add texture, but you want to seal the piece to preserve your hard work. This is where the Furniture and Antiquing wax come into play.
Apply furniture wax all over, and then add random bursts of antiquing wax for some added patina.
Tuscan Yellow Desk
The finished product is nothing short of stunning, and the attention to detail with multiple layers and finishes won't go unnoticed.
Even your choice of hardware has a lasting impact on the finish of the desk, so chose wisely!
What was the last layered colour project you did? Join the discussion and show us (and tell us which colours you used) in our Paint It Beautiful Facebook Group.
