Southwest Boho Style Furniture Makeover
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    • 5 min read

Southwest Boho Style Furniture Makeover

This week I created a gorgeous and unique southwest boho entertainment cabinet statement piece for my client. It’s bright and beautiful and I’m showing you a lot of techniques BUT you don’t have to use them all. Just keep them in your tool kit for the next time you want to make over a piece of furniture and maybe you’ll want to create a faux rust look, or add texture, or blend two colors of turquoise paint! Or if you’re as obsessed as I am about this one and want to recreate the look, follow along and let’s get started on this southwest boho style furniture makeover!

Supply List for Southwest Boho Style Furniture Makeover

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Surf Prep Sanding Kit (Use coupon code BELLARENOVARE10 )

Starting Off the Southwest Boho Furniture Makeover

There was some damage to the top and since I wanted to change the color, and since this is veneer, I used my 5” orbital by Surf Prep to remove the factory finish so that I could re-stain it.

While I removed all the pulls, I did keep all of the hardware on for this makeover because I wanted all the hardware to be part of the finished piece.

I cleaned the whole things with White Lightening and then wiped again with clean water and a clean cloth to ensure that remove any residual. NOTE: If you skip this step, you may have adhesion issues with the paint.

Adding Texture

The first thing I did was create texture using Barn Red chalk mineral paint and poured that into a measuring cup. I added a little bit of Sea Spray Texture Additive a little at a time until I reached a brownie batter like consistency. I stippled the mixture, did some long strokes, and made sure to add it to random areas since I had two more colors to do as well.

After that I mixed Colonel Mustard with the Barn Red that was already in the mixing cup and added some more Sea Spray Texture to create an orange hue and stippled that onto the piece. Finally, I added Colonel Mustard on its own, some more Sea Spray Texture and that was the third and final textured color.

This sat until it was thoroughly dry before I moved on to the next step of painting over it.

Adding Color to the Southwest Boho Furniture Makeover

No southwest boho furniture makeover would be complete without a deep turquoise paint color. I used Mermaid Tail and went halfway up with the piece in this color and then the top half was Pure Ocean. I wasn’t worried about complete full coverage, I just dipped the brush and did some light layers because later on I’d be sanding it to bring all the colors out from underneath. This technique is not meant to be perfect – tt’s meant to be a finish with a lot of character to look distressed and chippy.

I went around the whole lower half of the piece with the Mermaid Tail and then the same technique on the top half using Pure Ocean with some light blending for the two colors to meet in the middle.

When the Pure Ocean was a little bit damp still I went back in with Mermaid Tail and did some dry brushing with circles, vertical, horizontal strokes with a very light hand which makes the transition beautiful and look cohesive.

Adding Faux Rust to the Hardware

Time to create faux rust using Rusty Nail and Coffee Bean. Using a cheap chip brush I dabbed and layered those two colors on and let it dry and then went back a second time and layered it a bit more.

With the paint wet, I used my mister bottle and let the colors drip down because you don’t want it to look perfect, you want it to look aged, so play around with how it looks while you’re creating it.

Boho Southwest Stencils

At this point we’re midway through the southwest boho style furniture makeover I sanded the panels of the doors so that I could smooth it out to prep it for a silk screen stencil. I also wanted to bring out all the colors underneath before putting the stencil overtop which happens with the sanding process. I used the Western Boho stencil and peeled it from the backing and then placed it where I wanted it on the piece and pressed it down firmly. These stencils are great for a crisp look with the paint but that’s not what I wanted for this piece so I used Sawmill Gravy and a premium chip brush and push it in all those areas which will give a clean crisp stencil. I didn’t wash it in between uses and they can be used 10-12 times. Just peel it up from a corner and place it in the next spot.

Once dry, to add extra distressing I used a fine 10mm pad on my sander to distress over top of what I had stenciled.

You can use a paper towel to wipe off the dust from sanding. It may look like the pattern is a bit muddy after sanding but it’s just dust and will wipe away with a towel.

I sanded the entire piece down in order to bring out those first three textured colors that I had applied in the beginning.

I thought an orange wax would be a perfect finish on this piece so I created one using Florida Orange and Best Dang Wax. With a cheap chip brush, I accented the cracks and crevices and this can be easily wiped back if you find that it’s too dark.

Finally, I stained the top using Tobacco Road gel stain and spritzed the top lightly with my mister bottle. The water helps the stain move so you don’t have to use so much. It also helps the stain go a little bit further. I use long strokes always going with the grain.

After 24 hours, I used Gator Hide on the top with a high density foam roller, going with the grain, doing a layer and allowing to dry. Do not press down with the foam roller, just allow it to move lightly across the top. You can sand with a 220 or higher, get all the dust off and then put down another coat. This is my favorite way to do large flat areas because it gives it a beautiful finish.

The final step in this southwest boho style furniture makeover! While the top was drying, I took a synthetic brush and went over the body with Gator Hide for extra protection and to lock in the orange wax that I added and this finishes up the entire piece!

Here’s the video if you want to follow along with this process:



Just look at this finished southwest boho style furniture makeover. It’s cheery and happy and colorful!

If you need more furniture makeovers in your life, check out the blog archives. Here’s a great one! https://bellarenovare.com/2019/08/check-out-this-extreme-ikea-cabinet-makeover/

Thanks for stopping and see you next week!

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