When I was asked to do a Facebook live for Dixie Belle I was super excited, or terrified...maybe a bit of both. I chose the Christmas Eve slot because I thought it would be a fun thing to do for the holidays, I've been loving all of the holiday staging out there.
It was kind of an open door. I could fill @25-30 mins of whatever painting content I came up with. A blessing and a curse. I wanted to come up with something that was engaging, helpful, easy to teach, but still an impactful finish.
I've done small FB Lives on my own page with @4,000 followers, a few minutes at most, but this was 30 minutes on a page with 90k followers! As a new brand ambassador, my biggest fear was disappointment.
I tried to think of things I like when watching a video
Is the presenter prepared or winging it?
Is it teaching a technique or idea that I would actually want to try?
Is it entertaining, full of engagement?
Is the presenter prepared or winging it?
I wanted to come up with a look that was holiday inspired and allowed me to use a new product. Green and Gold was perfect, allowed me to use the Gold Metallic base and top coat. I may have gone a bit more elaborate on the finish, but I needed to keep it as something I could teach easily on camera.
The Bombay chest was an easy choice because the piece itself is interesting and eye catching and the size was right. I originally was going to do a small toy chest on camera but found this accent table that was the right size and simple in shape.
My garage is usually stuffed full of furniture. The day of the live we moved a bunch of it out into the driveway to clear out the garage. We set up a clean white back drop in the garage. I put the finished piece on a table to make it visable and used paint to accessorize it. My husband connected two furniture dollys so I could rotate the sample piece. I bought some photography lighting on FB marketplace for $20 to make sure my lighting was adequate, even put my logo on an apron to wear on camera.
I'm pretty high strung so this was all I could think about for a week beforehand. Not sure how people do this all the time. I prepped my piece by doing each side in the next sequential step. When it came time, my stomach was in knots, it's LIVE, no redo. There was a clock in front of me so I could watch my time. It actually went by surprisingly fast! Once I was painting everything seemed to flow, painting always calms me down a bit, it's where I'm comfortable.
I'm so glad to have this under my belt. I feel good with the outcome. You can hear what I'm saying, the up close shots are good, and hopefully the techniques were helpful. I hope to do more of these in the future...but not too many...because they make me freak out.
This piece needs no tutorial, because the whole process is on video! So watch here and duplicate this look at home. You can watch my first Dixie Belle FB Live and the full painting tutorial HERE!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXTQcIonHIc
All in all the final look is very rich, regal, and holiday inspired. I consider this a successful first Facebook Live furniture painting tutorial for Dixie Belle Paint Company. What do you like to see in a FB Live?
