I recently taught the Advanced Painting Workshop with my very good buddy, Shaunna of Perfectly Imperfect, at the Haven home blogger’s conference. We had a blast and I think it may have been my favorite class ever.  In the two hour hand’s on workshop, we taught three paint techniques.  Being an advanced class, they were pretty complicated treatments with multiple steps, so I promised I would share the “recipes” on my blog. Before you set out to try these techniques, I want to remind you (or make you aware) of something – you can follow these steps exactly and still achieve a very different look.  I wish you could see the variety at each table.  The colors were the same, the sample board was the same, the steps were the same, but the end result was different.  My boards look different from Shaunna’s and even looked different in each class.

Welcome to part two of the painted bar stool tutorial.  In case you missed it, or just for future reference, you can find part one HERE.  In part two, I’m going to share how the do the distressing and finishing to achieve the final look… We’ll also chat about the kind of sand paper I use for distressing. So, I painted the bar stool in two coats of MMS Milk Paint in French Enamel (with the bonding agent added) and let it dry overnight.  I didn’t have to let it dry that long, but that’s just how it worked out.  You can start distressing once the paint is dry to the touch. I prefer to distress most pieces by hand.  Sometimes I’ll hit a piece hard with the orbital sander, but it’s harder to control, especially on a piece with lots of corners and edges.  The orbital sander is really best for