First of all, I painted the whole thing white. It needed two coats.
Next, I took dark brown paint, and painted IN BETWEEN all the slats.
This step is VERY IMPORTANT -
- While the dark paint is still wet, take a baby wipe and wipe off the excess brown paint to give it a glazed effect. I've tried doing this with wet cloths, rags, etc but nothing works as well as baby wipes!
Then, I painted the three bands the dark brown colour to give it some contrast. I needed a couple coats on that as well.
After the outside painting was done, I used the dark brown and did a quick coat on the inside so you couldn't see the original colour if my stuffing materials for photos didn't cover it all.
Now that the painting was all done, it still had those ugly wire handles, so i covered them in twine from the dollar store.