A Fish Bench...with CHALK PAINT®

A customer inspired me with a page from a magazine she brought in the store. I am not sure which magazine it was, but there was a terrific old bench in a chartreuse-green color with a folk art fish painted down the length of the bench. I fell in love with it! So...I had to make one myself.

Here is the process:

My husband built this for me using pine boards-


This did not take long, but I would recommend waiting for the stain to dry overnight before painting on top of the stain. I wanted a dark wood to show through when I distressed the top of the bench.



Using CHALK PAINT® decorative paint on the top of the bench, I mixed 2 part Arles with 1 part Antibes Green to get this "yellowy-green" color...very creative & scientific name I gave it, don't you think?



Instead of straight-up plagiarizing the fish from the magazine, I opted for using some of the same color elements, but changed many of the fish pattern to mimic an old fishing lure. I started with the white base using Old White CHALK PAINT®.


Using Graphite CHALK PAINT® for the outline & details of the fish. Outlining artwork gives it a more "folk art" feel.



I added more CHALK PAINT® colors to the body of the fish. Scandinavian Pink, Provence & Olive. Keeping the paint very watered down, I was able to blend the colors in the body of the fish.



Because I thought this bench may need to have a home outside someday, I used an indoor/outdoor poly-acrylic satin varnish to seal the bench top.



And...voila! A fish bench...using CHALK PAINT®!