How I get crisp lines when painting two-toned furniture

Have you noticed I've been doing a lot of two-toned french provincial style makeovers lately! I'm just love the look. Can you tell?!

I figured I would show you how I get nice crisp lines, it took a lot of trial and error but I figured out a system that works well for me!

I start by painting the piece in the color that will end up being in the groves and recessed areas. For example I painted this piece all white first. Sorry I don't have any photos throughout my process but it is pretty simple and if you have any questions please ask me in the comment section below!

I often use a white primer in this step to kill two birds with one stone, my piece is primed and ready for paint and the groves and recessed areas have their first coat of white.

Next I go ahead and paint my first coat of the main color of the piece. In this case, that means I do the first coat of gray. I roll on the paint in the large areas that are not close to my edges and then I cut in carefully near my spaces that will stay white.

I do a second coat of the main color the same way I did the first coat.

And then the fun part, well more like the tedious part :) now I go in and do several coats with my paint pen on the groves and recessed areas. The paint pen makes it really easy to get a nice straight line. But I do usually need several coats to get good coverage. Here is the paint pen I used in all of the makeovers above. I got it at Walmart in the craft section.

I also have to paint in some of the areas that the paint pen is too wide to fit in.  I used Annie Sloan Chalk Paint the color Old White in all of the makeovers above, it is close to the color of the paint pen, although it does have more yellow in it, but I usually end up using antiquing wax over my pieces and you can't tell the slight variation in color.

I'm off to finish a dresser that matches the grey end tables from this post. I will be working hard painting with my painter's pen and watching Frozen with my kiddos! Life is pretty sweet :) Hope you are having a lovely day!

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