Thrift store French Provincial bedroom

I LOVE the Salvation Army thrift stores, don't you?!  They have so many treasures: furniture, glassware, silverware, books, art.  You know the thrill, the heart pounding thrill of a good find, right?!  Well I experienced it the day my husband pointed out to me a 1970's brown French Provincial bedroom suite which would be perfect for our guest room.  It was in good shape, solid wood in that yucky brown but oh those beautiful lines, those cabriole legs and gorgeous carvings: French love!  

This was early 2011 and I had never redone an entire bedroom suite before but I knew I wanted it creamy ivory with light distressing to highlight the lovely curves and carvings.  So... off to Lowe's for sandpaper, tack cloth, and God knows how many cans of Valspar ivory spray paint in satin finish (I hadn't heard of chalk paint at that point) and walnut stain.  So, I sanded, and sanded and sanded some more (enough to give the finish some bite, not to get rid of the finish):

Then I started spray painting... I pretended I was a spraying machine and used wide, even, repetitive sweeping movements across the surfaces for the most even finish. 

We lived in Florida then so it took some time to dry between coats.  We did two full coats with some sanding in between.  Here is the dressing table after:

Here is the dresser before:

and the dresser during (2nd coat):

I slightly sanded over the molding and carvings and used a q-tip dipped in walnut stain to darken the exposed wood; I also added a few "worm holes" with a cork screw! :-)

Since the paint was in a satin finish, I didn't have to wax or wipe poly to finish it.  If I knew then what I know now though... I would have used Annie Sloan Chalk paint in Old White and refinished and stained the tops with walnut stain... oh well, live and learn!

Here's the finished furniture in the guest room now (Click on photos to enlarge):

What do you think?  Thanks for stopping by!