What is Whitewash Effect?

Whitewashed furniture pieces are radiant from a distance, and exquisite up close

 

You can never go wrong with whitewash. Perfect for the outdoors or for your home dining area, whitewashed furniture doubles up as a majestic showpiece. The difference between a colour finish and whitewash lies in the preservation of the character of your wood. While whitewashing your furniture transforms its colour, it does not smother the wood grain, thus retaining the wood’s signature detail.

 

At Retro Dec, we believe that the natural goodness of quality wood should be enhanced, not concealed.

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What is Involved?

Our team of furniture painting specialists makes all the magic happen. All you need to do is tell us how you like your furniture to turn out, and leave the rest to us. Check out our portfolio to see what inspires you.

 

The Whitewash Effect takes a lot of effort and skill to get right, but typically can be broken down into 4 main steps.

 

1. Preparatory Works
Prior to transforming furniture, it is essential to patch up any obvious cracks and gaps with wood putty.

 

2. Sanding

In order to produce the finest finishing, the sanding process in any furniture repainting work is crucial. This step will be featured in each stage before applying any coat of paint.

 

We use specialised machinery to lightly sand (for painted surfaces, heavier sanding may be required) your furniture piece before applying base coat, to smooth out the surface and eliminate any bumpiness.

 

After applying base coat, we again do light sanding prior to actual painting work.

 

Before applying a lacquer clear coat onto the top coat, we do one final, light sanding of the surface to ensure the actual finish will be uniform and pleasing to the eye.

 

3. Painting Works
We apply a base coat after the first round of light sanding. The base coat can either be water-based, which is environmentally friendly and suited for indoor furniture, or solvent-based, which is recommended for outdoor furniture.

 

A layer of water-based or solvent-based (again recommended for outdoor furniture) top coat is roller-painted or spray-painted onto the surface. This is the actual painting of the furniture, and is where the skill of the painter truly comes into play. As we do not use chalk painting in our finishing work, the result is neither watery nor chalky, but full-bodied in character.

 

4. Finishing
Finally, when all the painting and sanding is done, we will apply a lacquer clear coat (glossy or matt) to further enhance the look and feel of your furniture.

Finished Outcome

BEFORE

before whitewash

AFTER

after whitewash

Discover other popular styles

Distressed Effect

Metallic Effect

Colour Finish

Ready for a Furniture Makeover?