Demoiselle 3 coloumn

Thursday, May 3, 2012

Annie Sloan Chalk Paint

Annie Sloan Chalk Paint... How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.... Yep, found out about it from Pinterest. Knew I wanted to re-do a vanity for Miss Gracie and found a great one on Craigslist. Did I feel like sanding, priming and working...like I did with Abbie's dresser? Nope. 

What was Abbie's dresser you ask? Well, it's still a work in progress so I am waiting to post when I am more finished. Did I mention I have ADD? There are quite a few projects going here at the moment.... 

Back to this chalk paint.... It's phenomenal! No sanding, no priming, very little prep work. Annie calls it paint for girls- I call it paint for ADD moms. I'm busy, I have lots going on... in actuality and in my brain. I have 4 (yes 4!) kids. Two teens and two (for all intents and purposes) babies. I'm over stimulated, over scheduled, over... everything. I'm a little lazy too so it really appeals to that side of me as well. 

After I read about it, went to probably 15 or 20 different blogs and YouTube Videos about it, and found a local supplier, I decided this was THE paint for me. Lucky me the distributer is at a super cute antique store I had wanted to visit for years! 


Isn't it just adorable? Don't you just want to pull right in and look around? I was thrilled to have an excuse. Heading in, I went upstairs (because I of course in my WAY over-thought process had read their blog and knew where the Annie Sloan section was) and after looking around a bit was greeted by Celeste. She's the resident expert and Annie Sloan stockist. This means she knows everything about it. Hooray for me! I had my fabric samples with me and was trying to figure out which colors would look best. If I had to state a downside to ASCP, I would say the color selection is a little limited. I was able to work with it just fine though and pick a great color- "Antoinette".

I headed home and decided to dig in. Ok, I will confess I had sanded the vanity prior to discovering ASCP, I had not however primed it. It really had to be sanded in some spots, there were so many layers of paint on it, some of the details were starting to disappear.

So here is the before:


No idea how many times it had been painted. The last time was a sort of white and then the lady had put down that rubber-ish no slip mat stuff you put in your glasses cabinet to keep it from chipping. When she pulled it up, it stuck... and left fantastic impressions all over (you can see them if you look closely)... so those HAD to be sanded out. I started hand sanding...and then remembered my husband has this mouse thing... found that and it went SO much quicker. 

Then there were the grooves on the sides. The mouse was just going to kind of flatten them out. Solution? The husband's Dremel thing. (It's actually made by Black & Decker so I don't know what it's called) Bought some sanding rings and tried to define the grooves a little more. Not perfect but it worked for me- plus Gracie is 3- she won't care. 

Ok, now we've got this: 


Pull out the ASCP and go to town! Here is the start: 


Not bad... covering pretty good (see the top?) Feeling good about this project. One coat and it looked like this: 


I'm happy with it. Plus the few brush strokes I can see will be almost gone when I apply the wax...so I was told. I decided to forgo the purchase of the wax brush when I got the paint and use a rag. The wax application is really easy- it's soft so you just put a little on your rag and rub it in like you would lotion on your skin. It's like polishing your shoes if you've ever done that? It darkens the paint just a bit- good so you know where you've waxed, goes back to the normal color after it dries. Oh, and there are two different kinds of wax- clear and dark. I chose clear. I didn't think I needed to get too fancy with my first project. So once you wax the whole thing, you decide if you want to wait and buff it out tomorrow or use very fine sandpaper (500-600 grit) and put the smoothest finish on it. I decided to wait out the finish since I still needed to at attach the fabric. Fabric? Yep, I decided to go whole hog with my fist project. So I waxed the two sides, not the lower part and pulled out my fabric and Mod Podge. 

Measure twice and cut once, right? Ummm... yea. So I measured and cut and checked it out. Decided to leave the front part long and sides a little long and trim after it dried- I was worried about shrinkage. 


Cute right? Laid down a layer of Mod Podge and smoothed out the fabric. Another layer of Mod Podge on top (carefully avoiding the raised sides) and wait.... says dry in 20 mins it was about an hour (humidity played a part). Found the utility knife and cut along the corners on top and down the sides. 

Now I'm left with this: 


I felt for the edge and used the utility knife at an angle to slowly cut along the front edge. (Hopefully you can picture it in your mind, I forgot to take a photo, sorry.) Then a slapped on another layer of Mod Podge and let it dry. Once it was dry I pulled out the coordinating fabric and laid that across the front flat piece and repeated the same procedure. Once that was all done, I smeared on the rest of the wax and walked away. 

Next day I grabbed a soft cloth and buffed the heck out of it. After essentially repeating what I had done the day before, I think next time I'll spring for the brush. The can of wax last pretty much forever since you don't use much and I hardly touched probably 10% of the quart of color I bought. Good thing, ASCP isn't cheap... but it's completely worth it. (Lol- Maybe I should have used that philosophy with the painted chair?) 

So my 15 had this chair when she was little: 


Perfect right? Except the seat doesn't match. Nothing more fabric and a staple gun can't fix. Oh yes, I painted and waxed the chair too so it would look like it goes together. DId you know you can use this paint and wax on outdoor furniture? You're starting to get intrigued aren't you? I told you it was awesome! 

SO drug the whole thing up to her room, attached the mirror, set up her chair and WA LA! 


Oh yes, I totally forgot, for a finished look, I lined the drawers with the circle fabric that's on the front, and Mod Podged wooden knobs I bought at the Big Box Hardware store to match. 

See that odd thing that sticks out of the side near that jewelry box? I think it was for a glass shelf. Well, glass is pricy and my 3 year old can break or destroy anything. In the interest of her safety, I decided a few days later to make a shelf out of some wood I had used to make jewelry displays earlier this year. I cut it to size, sanded the edges, one coat of paint, wax and this time thought I would try the sanding technique. When you do this, you don't have to wait for the wax to dry at all. You just apply nearly no pressure to the sand paper and rub it around the waxed surface. You almost feel the wax blend into the paint. It gives an even smoother finish and I really liked it for the shelf. 

Here is the totally finished product: 



What do you think? Pretty neat huh? Gracie LOVES it! 


3 comments:

  1. I love it! You're pretty handy, my friend.

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  2. Did you wax over the fabric too? Analisa (www.ruthsfarmandfurniture.com)

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  3. Hi Analisa! I did not wax over the fabric too. I did add a layer of modge podge on top for protection though.

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