Here, you will find helpful information about Terra Bella Paint & Design Center products and services, along with great tips and ideas for all your home projects.
STEP 1 - select your color
Color accounts for 60% of our response to an object or place. One of the most rewarding and cost-effective household projects is reviving an old piece of furniture with a fresh coat of paint. Painted furniture can freshen up the look of any space and you can easily change the color to coordinate with a room's color scheme. Good candidates for painting are dressers, tables, bookcases, mirror frames, and chairs.
Perhaps the most fun, creative part of painting your own furniture is choosing just the right hue to harmonize with the color scheme of the room the piece will live in. Keep in mind that darker colors will appear larger and might overwhelm a small room. Brighter colors and colors that contrast sharply with the walls and other furnishings will draw attention to a piece and make it the focus of the room, while lighter colors will help a piece blend in.
Our color gallery below is a great place to start browsing our paint colors and color combinations. Each color is linked to our store so that you can easily add it to your shopping cart.
STEP 2a - select your Finish (Sheer) Our high quality Protect & Seal Products are easy to apply, easy to clean up after, and create a smooth finish. The type of finish will depend on whether your painted furniture will have a purely decorative function or a practical use. If the piece will be touched often, choose a protective finish that can be easily wiped clean. The more shine to a finish, the more protectied the surface.
STEP 2b - select your Finish (Tinted)
Our tinted finishes have a number of uses. They provide the same protect finish that our Sheer Protect & Seal products do, however, it also gives your pieces warmth. In addition, it grabs all of the nooks and crannies on an architectural piece giving it dimension. Finally, it helps cover up small imperfections.
STEP 3 - How to select a paintbrush
Chalk paint is water based and requires a professional quality paintbrush with synthetic filament. We offer the Cling-On professional paintbrushes. The size and shape of a paintbrush is purely a personal choice. Our Cling-on Flat professional brush (F50 and F40) are the most popular, however others prefer the feel of the Cling-on Oval professional brush. Our Cling-on Angled professional brushes are great for painting in hard to reach places, chair legs, and spindles while others prefer the Cling-on Round professional brush for legs and spindles. We also carry the Cling-on Big B12 Flat professional brush that is great for large surfaces.
STEP 4 - Paint your Furniture
The actual painting is the simplest and easiest step in the process. First, paint the larger, flat surfaces. Start near a corner, but not on the very edge, and work outward, brushing with the grain. Be sure to not overload your brush with paint. If you want a thicker coat, let the first coat dry before repainting rather than using too much paint the first time. Continue by painting the edges and trim. If there is too much paint on the brush when you brush up to or over an edge, some of the paint might run over, so be especially careful and wipe any drips or overflow immediately with a clean, damp cloth. Finally, all that's left to do is let it dry and enjoy the beautiful results!
STEP 5a - Seal and Protect your Furniture with a Sheer product
Once the paint is completely dry - Use a Protect & Seal Applicator Sponge, dampen the sponge, cover one side of the sponge in Sheer Liquid Wax or Varnish and apply two thin coats. Let dry fully between coats.
STEP 5b - Seal and Protect your Furniture with a Tinted product
Once the paint is completely dry - Use a Protect & Seal Applicator Sponge, dampen the sponge, cover one side of the sponge in Sheer Liquid Wax or Varnish and apply two thin coats. Let dry fully between coats.
If you just want to highlight specific areas with the Tinted Sealer, your piece won't be completely protected. Once you have completed highlighting your piece, follow-up with two thin coats of our Sheer Protectant of your choice.
STEP 6 - Curing Time
You can ask three people how long it will take for your piece to cure and you will receive three different answers. The fact is, our paint has incredible adhesion qualities. However, no matter what piece of furniture you come across, even furniture with the very best protectant can get marred. As a result, treat your furniture with care. Now, getting back to curing time. Curing time depends on how heavy the paint was applied, humidity, and if water was added to the paint. Yes, you can add up to 20% water to our paint, in fact we encourage it for the darker colors which have more pigment resulting in thicker paint. Add enough water for your paint to reach the consistency of butter milk. However, water needs to evaporate, hence the humidity factor. Our paint is non-toxic, you can paint indoors with it, so why not take advantage of a temperature controlled environment to speed up your curing time. Thinner coats of paint applied to your piece and drying time between coats will also help. Thin coats of protective sealers are the very best approach. I have seen pieces cure in a couple of weeks and I have seen others take months. When a car is newly painted, its curing time is approximately three months. Chalk-acrylic paint needs time as well to harden and adhere to the surface of your furniture.
