Private: Fusion™ Mineral Paint Meets Kitchen Island!

I wanted to share this project that I recently completed in one of my clients homes.  This was my first ‘job’ using Fusion™ Mineral Paint and I couldn’t be more happy with the results.  I had originally sold the client on a distressed chocolate island for her kitchen by showing her a sample that I already had.  After we had agreed on it….I contacted Fusion to see if they might have a chocolate that would work for this project.  I had received lots of samples from them to play with over the last few months, but hadn’t seen all of the colors at that time.  As you can see this piece is made out of MDF (medium-density fiberboard), which is basically compressed wood.

I knew from the original sample that we were going to lightly distress the edges and give it a nice worn, aged look.  Because we were sanding back to get this look I did not want to prime, as the primer would show under the dark chocolate and that is not what I wanted to happen.   Normally I would paint a coat of primer, sand, paint first coat of paint, followed by a second coat to get full coverage.  Worst case scenario would be to have to paint a 3rd coat….thinking first coat would act as a primer, second coat….then a third coat for coverage if needed.  Can I tell you how pleasantly surprised I was when I saw what happened after just one coat….straight onto raw wood?

Did y’all see that?  Really….DID Y’ALL SEE THAT???  One coat….ONE COAT!!!  I was blown away!!   Of course I’m thinking as it’s going on….well when it dries….then what’s it going to look like?  Did it suck up the paint?  Yes it did.  Did it leave it dry and splotchy?  No it didn’t!  Was it beautiful?  Yes it was!!   Now don’t think I got to paint one coat on and call it done. I let it dry overnight.  Because it was applied to raw wood it did raise the wood fibers a little….very little…it took maybe 30 minutes to lightly hand sand the entire island to smooth out the little ‘hairs’.

I then took my handy electric sander and some 220 sand paper and hit the edges quickly to sand it back to the wood.  This stuff sands like a dream!  Here’s a picture of what it looked like after I sanded….

I knew that the original sample had been glazed, but I wanted to try some of the new Antiquing Tough Coat made by Fusion™.  So I simply applied one coat (thinned with about 10% water).  This gave the island a nice warm aged looked and softened the starkness of the raw wood that was showing through where I had sanded the edges.  It also gave it a soft satin or matte sheen that, after it had dried, was very durable!  I applied two coats, as that’s my normal way when doing kitchen cabinets.

Here is the final result of the beautiful island finished in Fusion™ Mineral Paint “Chocolate”! My client was so thrilled when she saw it and couldn’t believe how fast I got it done!

So here is the funny…when I ordered the paint, they asked me how much I would need? Well that was kind of hard to answer since I had never used the Chocolate, I had never done any kind of a real job with this product, it was going onto raw wood and I had no idea how that was going to work…Fusion comes in pint sizes, so I ordered the equivalant  of a gallon! A GALLON y’all! I’m embarrassed to say I was way off….I used less than a quart! Pictures are deceiving….this is a large island!  And another thing, when I bid this job I bid it this way 1)prime 2)sand 3)paint 4) paint 5) sand and distress 6) antique and 7) seal with a top coat.  In reality it went like this 1) prime and paint 2) sand 3) seal with a top coat.  Guess which one I was paid for?  Yep the 1st one….I was in profit heaven!!  Since I was feeling kind of guilty (kind of) I went ahead and painted the laundry room cabinets as a bonus!  Here’s a picture of those!