Do you fake?  I don’t do tanning beds anymore, but I do like some dark color on me in the summer so I opt for the “fake color”.  Did you know you can “fake” a darker, deeper color on your wood furniture too?

If you have a piece of furniture that you don’t want to put the effort into stripping and restaining, or maybe it has a fakey finish to begin with.  You are looking for something deeper, richer, more dramatic, but you don’t want to paint it, you still want it to look like a stain.

Here is an easy, wayyyyyyy easy fix for that.  Do you remember when I showed you how to make anything look like wood?  You can read that HERE.

This is the abbreviated version of that technique, as in abbreviating NO CHARGE to NC.  ie, (hee hee).  There is no charge for this free tip, (but a comment would be lovely).

Here is my side table (or Mark’s I should say) before:

I wanted to give this table a richer darker look.  I pulled out my favorite bottle of Modern Masters “Coffee Bean” colorant.  You can order Modern Masters online through a retailer.   Some Kelley Moore stores stock their products too.  Check your local store to find out.  Here is a link to where I order mine.   Artistic Accent Walls.  I usually have it within a few days.  The colorant is a highly pigmented acrylic.  You could probably achieve this same effect with a highly pigmented acrylic paint.  The trick here is, highly pigmented.  With just using a chip brush,  load it up about halfway, not as much as I would put on it if I were actually painting and wanted full coverage.  Then I just brush on as evenly as I can, or not, depending on the look you are going for. If you mess up, you can keep a wet rag nearby and wipe it off quick before it dries.  Here is how it looks getting started.

Do you see how the colorant naturally goes into the grain?  That is the look you are aiming for.  When this coat is dry, (it dried in about an hour).   I came back and added detail to the edges and corners.  You can go as heavy or as light as you want at this point.  Just like if you got a spray on tan!  (You don’t want to look like an oompa loompa, so don’t go too heavy)

Here are some details of the finished piece.

I added more colorant on the edges, then gradually let it fade in to lighter.

Here is the entire top:

And here is the whole reveal:

There is that canoe again, it is migrating around my bedroom.

Here is the table with some favorite people of mine:

Avant:

Apres:

(try not to notice where I got lazy and didn’t cut in, the dresser sits in front of the wall here, I know pahthetic)

It’s summer, go and get some brown on you!