I often buy the satin oil paint at Home Depot, and mix it myself to get the color I want.

Or, professional paint stores such as Benjamin Moore, or Duron has their colors available in Oil

If you look through the older french furniture, a lot of the colors that are seen are greenish grays. Depending on the look you want to achieve, I would suggest you try out a number of colors in this color range, and find a shade that works the best.

What you can try is Pebble Stone by behr. It is a really light beige white, which works really well with a creamy white over top. Most of the Louis style colors are the gray, beige, or green colors. They are pretty basic colors in that time period. So if you want to go with a darker look underneath, try something gray, or beige, or green beige, or green gray.

The picture of the bed works really well with the technique I described. Your first coat is latex falt, or eggshell. Let it dry. Then once it is dry, the key is the oil. When you apply the oil use paper towel, as it works the very best, and wipe off the white paint. I have found when you dab your oiled towel on your furniture piece and then wipe it off, it gives a bit of a texture to it. Once you try it, you will figure out what looks great within the first few minutes. Quickness with the oil paint is the key to this finish.

Let me know how it worked out.

Meranda

I am just wondering what type of paint to do the base in? You mention oil paint for the finishing touches, do I simply use a water based paint for the base?

Also, do you have any suggestions as to the brands of paint to use