Painting Over Honey-Coloured Furniture

I often come across people wanting me to give that authentic, distressed look to their Mennonite-made furniture - you know - the solid wood, 90's built honey oak furniture.  I've always denied the ability to do it, because when you distress a piece, you want the dark wood showing through the paint.  With lighter coloured furniture, it just doesn't distress well, because the colour coming through is light and not pretty at all.  

A recent customer asked me to paint her mirror the same colour as a tallboy she had bought from me.  I agreed, thinking I could always just not distress it.  The mirror was in similar style to the mirror pictured above - a light wood. 

So, I gave the piece a light sand, and painted it.  It was a disaster.  It flaked off everywhere.  I didn't want to use the bonding agent, because I find when I do use it, it makes the colour slightly lighter.  So I sanded down the mirror REALLY well, and painted it again.  Once again, the paint flaked off.  Not as bad as the first time, but still not acceptable.  I took my sand paper, and I sanded and sanded - I sanded all the little corners and edges - everything.  Then I painted it a third time.  Even so, when I was finish-sanding the paint, it still came off more than I wanted.

At this point, I started looking at the project as a really good learning opportunity, rather than get frustrated with it.  I knew I needed a base coat on the mirror, one that wouldn't come off if sanded.  Then I had an idea.  I had a can of this Rustoleum spray paint leftover from another project.  Because it's oil-based and has a hammered finish, I thought it would have less chance of being sanded though.  This is what I used:

It worked fantastic!  Once I had the piece spray painted, I let it dry for a full day before I applied a coat of milk paint.  The paint went on smoothly, and after two coats, it was completely covered.

When I went to distress it, the dark colours showed through beautifully - just like it was originally a dark wood piece.

The little knobby things on the side I redid in a silver guilding wax.
 

I love the texture that shows through.
 

The spray paint underneath also gives the piece a beautiful sheen.  I may try this again.
 

Well, that's all.  Just thought I'd share this simple little project.  The projects for this week include: a white tallboy with a stencil on it, an antique buffet - which I might paint yellow or orange, and making and shipping my very first Etsy order!  I sold a custom barnboard sign this week, and I'm very excited about it.  I'd love for my Etsy shop to start having some sales as well - I love doing signs, they are such a nice break from painting furniture.  Can't wait to share these projects on my blog :)