The Autumn season is such a beautiful time of the year because we can finally see the outdoors bloom with wonderful warm shades of amber, crimson and copper. It’s these warm and cozy shades that speak to a changing season in our lives and inspire the creative side in us to bring the fall indoors. Whether you want to jump right into a wintry mix of twinkling lights and Christmas trees or keep the warm bouquets of the fall foliage around just a bit longer, Fusion Mineral Paint is here to supply all your end-of-year projects for fall and winter. November is our inspiration for this project, and we set out to create a warm, custom autumn orange colour for our furniture makeover. Here is a look at the before shot of our furniture project:
Below is a list of supplies you will need to complete a similar project:
- Fusion Mineral Paint Tuscan Orange
- Fusion Mineral Paint Mustard
- Fusion Mineral Paint Chocolate
- Fusion TSP Alternative + Wiping Cloths
- Double Espresso Gel Stain
- Fusion Tough Coat Matte
- Orbital Sander and Sandpaper
- Staalmeester 2 inch Synthetic Brush
- Mixing Stick + Bowl
How to Prep Your Furniture
Although this piece looks to be in decent condition, it was extremely dirty and had a crackled finish. We always prep our pieces to have a long-lasting finish and prep work is the place to start to create that foundation. After we removed the hardware, we used our pre-mixed Fusion TSP and water solution and sprayed the entire piece. We wanted to let Fusion TSP break down some of the oils on the surface so we let it saturate for a minute or two before we wiped it away with a microfiber cloth. Then, we repeated these steps twice to ensure we got the surface extra clean. We also vacuumed the interior and all the drawers to remove loose debris.
Our next step was to remove the crackled finish. We wanted a smooth, buttery look to our surface so we took our orbital sander and sanded down the top and drawer fronts to bare wood starting with 80 grit paper and moving up to 220. The sides, legs and drawer shelves all got a scuff sanding to even out the surface. Once the sanding step was done, we took a damp cloth and removed the dust.
A Stunning Custom Recipe
Once our prep work was complete we moved on to mixing our custom autumn orange colour. You can play around with creating your custom colour recipes with Fusion and the results will always be stunning. For our autumn orange colour we mixed:
- 2 parts Chocolate
- 2 parts Mustard
- 4 parts Tuscan Orange
You have to play around to determine how you want your paint to read but we found the above recipe worked for to give us a beautiful tan autumn orange colour. You can add more Chocolate if you want your colour to read darker and more saturated or add more Tuscan Orange for a warmer amber colour. Add more Mustard to neutralize in-between.
TIP: When mixing custom colours, it’s always advised to make more than what you need for your project. In case you underestimate, you always have more paint ready to use without the worry of getting the colour exact. If you have any leftovers, you can use them to paint smaller pieces and décor or as an accent colour for another piece.
Highly pigmented colours like yellow and orange will be slightly more transparent so you may need more coats. This piece took 3 full coats of our autumn orange colour to get opaque coverage. Once our last coat dried, we very lightly distressed the raised areas.
We wanted to bring out the natural beauty of our old oak wood top, so we used Fusion Double Espresso Gel Stain to tint our top. We used an old cloth to apply the stain in a very light coat, just enough to give some warmth to our top.
Lastly, sealing your piece is easy with Fusion Tough Coat. Simply use a sponge or a high-quality synthetic brush to apply your topcoat. Take care not to overbrush!
Custom Autumn Colour Recipe
The best part about a finished project is getting to decorate it! While this piece isn’t covered with pumpkins and leaves, you truly get to enjoy the moody coziness of fall all wrapped up in this buttery autumn orange colour.
Taking a step back to realize how wonderfully neutral this piece, is gives us a whole new outlook on bringing this colour into our homes year-round. A complimentary gold and black pull ties our look together and adds a level of elegance to our piece bringing in those darker accents.
Keeping our top wood allowed us to add texture and character. It breaks up the orange colour while complimenting it at the same time. We wanted to layer in some modern and vintage elements and each of these different sepia tones gives our eyes a fest of warm colour.
We hope we brought you a new level of inspiration with custom colours. This colour may seem like it was destined for Fall and Autumn, but paired with the right décor, it can be used any time of the year, especially if you’re going for a boho, desert sunset look!
Can you see this gorgeous autumn colour on your projects? We surely hope to see this colour make its rounds on social media, so don’t forget to tag us in all your Fusion projects!
