How to Use French Lime Paint to Get a Time Worn Finish

La Chaux French Lime Paint is a traditional lime paint made of pure, European lime mixed with natural pigments.  It is eco friendly and a zero VOC paint product made with minimally processed natural ingredients.  La Chaux French Lime Paint is more textural than chalk based paints.   This is a very traditional European product and gives the look of multiple layers of paint with only one coat.

That last part is the deal sealer for me – only one coat!   You’ll notice in the photo below that the La Chaux paint is thick.  It almost has a pudding like texture.  It’s super smooth and creamy.

Here are a few before pics of the dresser I painted.  You can see it was “well loved” and was full of scratches and chipping veneer, but had a nice “Frenchy” shape!

After I thoroughly cleaned the dresser, it was ready for the first coat of La Chaux French Lime Paint.  Now, here’s where you can be flexible.  You should give your project a base coat, but you don’t have to use the La Chaux French Lime Paint.  Since this dresser had a lot of, let’s say, “character”, I decided that I would use La Chaux paint for both my base coat and top coat.  I wanted lots of paint texture.  My first coat of paint was the color Coquille (French for oyster shell).    Here’s the complete La Chaux color chart for your reference.

It only took one coat of Coquille to cover the dark finish on this dresser.  Once the Coquille was completely dry, it was time for the top coat.  For the top coat, I chose the color Garconniere (French for bachelor’s pad or love nest).  Normally, when I paint a piece of furniture, I’m super careful about how I apply the paint (with light, even strokes of the brush and going with the grain).  You can see in the photo below, that you don’t need to worry about that with this product.   This is a dresser drawer with the top coat of Garconniere.  You can see from my obvious brush strokes that I was not worried about being careful with this paint.   I was almost intentionally sloppy (which is really not in my nature).  You can also see that in some areas the paint is thicker and even gloppy.  You can also see that I didn’t worry if some of the base coat of Coquille showed through.  It all works and will lend to the overall end result of a time worn finish.

Here’s a drawer with the Garconniere coat beginning to dry.  You can see the edges are lighter.  The paint lightens quite a bit as it dries.

The only other thing I did was use a light grit sanding sponge to knock off some of the very rough spots and do a tiny bit of distressing on the edges and where you would naturally see wear from use.

With just the light sanding, the surface of the dresser was soooo smooth to the touch.   Again, I’ve used a lot of different paint products over the years, but this stuff is in another league!

I’ve never gotten this kind of effect with so little effort.  If you like the time worn, aged look of old European furniture, then you will love this product!  I did finish the piece with a coat of wax.  I chose to use  Maison Blanche Lime Wax in Gray.  Just wipe or brush on and buff to a soft sheen.  That’s it – three easy steps!

I know I’ve been gushing the whole way through this post, but I can’t help it – I’m in love!

If you are intrigued by the new La Chaux French Lime Paint – here’s a great step-by-step video presentation – it’s a great way to see a piece transform right before your eyes.    I’d love to hear your thoughts on the La Chaux paint by Maison Blanche.  If you’d like to find a Maison Blanche paint retailer, click HERE.

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