Mid-Century Modern Chalk Paint Dresser & Polishing Brass

To achieve this shiny, undistressed, mid-century modern finish, I started off like I normally do.

I painted a coat of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Aubusson. I only touched up a couple areas with a 2nd coat, but most of it didn’t need a 2nd coat because the coverage is AMAZING with Aubusson.

Then, I sanded the entire thing with 220 grit sanding sponge. I wanted to diminish any brush strokes or bumps.

Then, I sanded the entire thing with 600 grit sand paper (it is a black sandpaper). This gets it SUPER smooth. I was, however, VERY careful not to sand the edges hardly at all because I didn’t want them distressed.

For the topcoat, I knew I wanted something other than furniture wax. While I LOVE furniture wax for almost all of my pieces, they work BEST if you are going to distress the edges (even if it is a little bit). It doesn’t create a super hard, durable finish and usually that is a desirable trait, in my opinion. It IS more forgiving if it is marred, with the ease in which you can do touch ups. But, I’d rather find something that gave me a lacquer-type finish.  To get a glossy finish (what I wanted) I would have to buff the crap out of it. So, I knew I needed a type of poly in a gloss finish.  (I could have gone with Verathane for floors in clear gloss because it doesn’t yellow, but I couldn’t find a small can ANYWHERE and at $40 for a large can that I wouldn’t use that often, I decided it wasn’t worth the splurge.)

After much research I decided to go with a polyurethane that was water based (because water based usually doesn’t yellow), was durable and had a gloss finish.