Restoration Hardware finish

Restoration Hardware finish matte varnish over annie sloan chalk paint restoration hardware finish

For a pewter/darker gray, Start with layers of white and light gray. Pick up any white-ish and light grayish colors you use can find in the oops section of the paint dept. Those usually sell for $2 or so. Since it’s raw wood, the paint will soak right in.

Paint the white but not perfectly. Go with the grain but don’t fully cover the raw wood. Then I’d sand it using a very coarse (80 grit) sandpaper. Goal is to get some of the wood to peek out.

Then, using the gray, dip your brush into the paint, then brush it into a paper plate or towel. You’re tying to remove most of the paint from the brush, which sounds counterintuitive, but it’s called dry brushing. Goal is to create wisps of light gray on top of the white. We’re creating layers. It’s all about layers for the RH look.

Sand again, this time with a 220 grit.

If you can find the chalk paint, I’d use Annie’s dark gray color called Graphite. You won’t need a lot. In fact, a sample color pot will suffice. I’d water it down so you have a 1:2 paint:water ratio (quite watery). Brush with the grain on the keezer but don’t worry about being a neat painter. Lightly cover the white/gray layers. Goal here is to continue creating layers. I’d immediately take a rag and wipe off, going with the grain so that you just see a slight hint of the dark gray covering the layers below it. I’d probably do a few layers of the graphite wash depending on how the piece is looking. Heck, I’d probably continue to layer with washes of the other colors, but I’m just crazy like that.

Then, since this is a keezer and there will be beer splashing all over it all the time, you need to seal it. The RH look is matte. There’s a great product called Modem Masters Dead Flat which is usually carried at Dunn Edwards. It’s water-based here in tree hugging California. The oil-based version would protect even better but will take time to dry. I’d do two coats, using 0000 steel wool to sand in between coats. If you can’t find MMDF, use a matte marine varnish. Spar Var poly is my favorite, but it has a bit of sheen.