Pottery Barn Dupe with Chalk Paint Wash
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I love a good furniture dupe. I enjoy the challenge of recreating a beautiful (and pricey) piece with some creativity and hard work. For this project, I took a really poorly-painted piece that I found at Goodwill and am giving it new life! Not only that, I’m giving it some Pottery Barn dupe vibes by recreating their charcoal finish with some black chalk paint wash.
I CAN’T WAIT to show you how this project turned out...but first, check out my inspiration piece along with this
Materials Used for Pottery Barn Dupe Makeover
A Note About Oil-Based Topcoat with Water-Based Paint
To start, I could tell this piece had a pretty poor paint job, and the first sign was the yellow streaky mess you could see right away. This is from putting an oil-based topcoat over water-based paint! It’s a big no-no!
I am super excited to strip back this bad paint job and reveal the all-wood piece underneath it.
Stripping the Paint on Furniture
As I mentioned, this piece is all wood, so I want to highlight the beautiful grain, and you guys know I have done natural washes in the past and whitewashes, but I really am inspired to do this charcoal blackwash you can find all over Pottery Barn's website.
I know I'm stripping all this paint off, so I don't need to clean. I just removed my hardware and then went to town with sanding.
I took my Festool sander with a 60-grit aggressive sandpaper, put it in Rotex mode, and stripped all of the paint and primer off.
If you follow me on Instagram, you know this project took me a week longer than I thought it was going to take because there was so much paint, so much topcoat, and so much primer to get through.
But it was totally worth it because this is a real all-wood piece. It's not veneered at all, which you don't find a lot.
I also used my Wagner Furno 300 and a paint scraper to get off the little detailed areas. Once all that finish was stripped off, I grabbed a 120 sandpaper and smoothed everything out.
I wanted a rustic finish, so stopped after this, but if you wanted a really smooth finish, you could go ahead and do a 220 after you finish sanding the whole thing with the 120.
So after days and hours and hours and hours of stripping, this looks really good. This would look really good natural too, but I had just had in my mind, I want to do this blackwash. I've never done it before.
Modernize the Outdated Piece
The thing about picking up thrift store furniture to refinish is that there is usually some extra work involved in getting those modern lines. This typically involves removing the trim.
I used a speed square to mark off where I want to cut off the scalloping. Then I used my Ryobi jigsaw with a clean-cut blade and in wood mode to follow my lines and cut the scalloping off.
Using a jigsaw and cutting off scalloping is a lot easier than removing the base and building a whole new base, and it gives it a modern look for a lot less.
After I cut that out, I used my sander to smooth out any little bumps and jumps that my jigsaw made and removed my pencil marks.
Then I worked my way around the whole sideboard and removed any other scalloping.
How to Create Your Pottery Barn Dupe with Black Chalk Paint Wash
Finally, all of the prep work is done, and it’s time to get this pottery barn dupe underway.
I grabbed this Jolie Noir because I love this color, and I didn't have enough left to do an entire piece, but I did have enough to add water and do a wash with it.
I did one part paint to one part water for my wash, mixed it up really well, and then grabbed my Zibra 2-1/2" trim brush to get it started.
I love using this Zibra brush on washes because it covers so much area, and Zibra brushes hold a lot more paint than the leading paintbrush, so it helps me get this done quickly and evenly.
TEST! Before jumping in with both feet, I tested out a spot by wiping it back with a lint-free cloth because I had NO idea how it was going to look. Trial and error is the name of the game. But, good news here, I was OBSESSED with how my test came out...so I went for it.
I used to do washes in sections, but now I like to cover a whole area and then wipe it back. I especially wanted to do it this way with the black because I wanted the pigments to soak in a little bit longer.
You just want to make sure that your paint and your wash are wet enough that it's not drying because you want it to still be wet when you come back in with your lint-free cloth and wipe it back.
I like using Intex wiping rags because they absorb the paint really well. If you use a T-shirt or something like that, it might just push your paint around and you really want to focus on getting that excess off.
So I’m not sure how your piece of furniture is, but mine had some detailing on the trim. I ended up not wiping back the wash here and left it full strength. I didn't wipe that back at all because it's really hard to sand them.
Leaving it full strength really matched the kind of wash look of the whole piece really well.
Another note regarding details, the Zibra brush I was using comes in a great kit, and to get into the details of the doors and sides, I’m going to grab the round brush out of that kit. It really made it easier to brush around the edges and into those little detailed grooves.
Step 6 (Optional): Apply a Second Coat of Chalk Paint Wash
After I did one wash, I thought it looked great, but I wanted it just a little deeper, so I did go ahead and do a second coat on everything.
I let this dry overnight in between coats because when you're doing a wash, your wood gets really wet and saturated, so it's going to take a little bit longer for it to dry.
The only thing different I did on the second coat was used my mister to spray down the area before I added that second coat of wash. It seemed to dry a little bit faster on top of the paint versus the raw wood, so the mister just helped my paint stay open so I could get that nice, beautiful wash.
Use a Clear Coat to Finish That Pottery Barn Dupe Look!
Once everything dried, I grabbed some clear coat by Dixie Belle in the flat finish, and added just a little bit of my paint, and mixed it up really well. I like to add this tint when putting a topcoat over dark colors.
I used my Dixie Belle sponge to apply this. This piece is pretty flat and I just really enjoy using the sponge to apply topcoat lately. It gives you a streak-free finish, and it's really easy to apply. You just have to watch out for little bubbles and not put too much topcoat on your sponge, but besides that, I really like using it.
I personally chose flat for this piece because I'm going for that raw wood look, and this is going to give me the most matte natural finish.
I did use the sponge on most of the pieces, but in those little detailed areas, I grabbed another brush out of that furniture painting kit, the Palm Pro, and got drips or globs off with that.
If it looks white and streaky at first, don’t worry! When it dries down, it’s absolute perfection. I love how this looks a little crazy going on all white and streaky, but this is what it dries down to.
I gave my topcoat two hours to dry and then did a light sanding with really fine sandpaper before adding a second coat.
Add a Modern Hardware to Get that Expensive Pottery Barn Look
For the hardware on this piece, I picked out this Cocoa Bronze Liberty pull, so I need to get these hinges to match that. I picked up some of the Rustoleum Metallic in the closest color I could find, which was a Flat Burnished Amber. I prepped these hinges and the screws to paint them by taping them to cardboard.
I gave them a quick sanding and cleaned them with a degreaser (and rinsed them) before spraying. I filled the directions on the can, so I just applied in thin coats and let it cure overnight before putting it back on my piece.
Does It Look Like a Pottery Barn Buffet?
Okay, who's ready for the reveal? From cute and country to modern and classic. I am obsessed with the way this turned out...and I think I pulled off that Charcoal Pottery Barn Dupe!
It turned out better than I thought it was going to turn out. It was a lot of work, but this one was definitely worth it. Let me know in the comments if you’re going to recreate this black chalk paint wash technique too!
Watch the video tutorial of this project on Youtube.