Light and shadow details on furniture with Jenni’s instructions

Carved patterns look stunning on furniture.

Bringing them out by shading and highlighting takes the whole piece of furniture to new dimensions. Try this fun and easy technique if you want a change from solid color painting!

First paint the base with your desired light color (for example, Grey Pebble is good because you can use white for highlights and darker gray wax for shading).

Take a small flat brush and dip it lightly into white paint. Wipe the brush back and forth on a piece of cardboard, for example, to remove excess paint so the brush looks dry.

Start painting highlights lightly by just brushing over them. Emphasize the areas where light naturally hits first. Take more paint on the brush from time to time and continue highlighting.

Next, protect the entire surface with clear wax. It’s best to use a wax brush for this, rolling the wax onto the painted surface, then wiping off the excess with a cloth. Clear wax makes working with gray wax easier because it softens the shading without harsh edges.

Or if you want, you can erase excess gray. For adding gray wax, I like to use a small brush, depending on the details either a very fine tip or a flat and narrow one. Take some gray wax on the brush and first add it along the edges of the carvings.

For small recesses and edges. Also try how you can blend gray with clear wax. There’s no rush when working with wax; you can take breaks and continue later by adding more shading.

Wax brushes can be cleaned with mild soapy water. However, keep a separate brush for each wax color to prevent colors from mixing in the jars while you work.

One more tip! You should also try the new Frenshimmer pearl shade Pearly Queen for highlighting. It gives a beautiful glow when brushed over white paint.

Have fun with your painting project and we look forward to seeing your photos in the Frenchic group!