Annie Sloan Chalk Paint

I have always wanted to be able to paint furniture fun colors with a nice distressed look, but learning seems so daunting...I would read blog articles and not really understand how they did what they did, or have an understanding of the different products they used.  And I never found the time and energy to really dive in and just learn by doing.

With that being said I noticed Annie Sloan Chalk Paint was becoming popular (not chalk board paint) and was seeing it more and more on blogs and in nicer antique stores.  I decided when time and energy magically appeared that was the paint I was going to try and learn more about.  Around my birthday we were in one of those nice antique stores, that also happens to sell the paint, and I started asking questions.  Enough questions that the lady asked if I wanted to sign up for an Intro class to Chalk Paint.  DO I??????? Oh course I do!!!!!  Well at first I thought it might be too expensive and I should try and learn via blog and youtube, but since that has never worked well for me in the past AND Colin was on board to join me, we signed up! Yay!  It wasn't so much the painting I needed help with, it was the waxing and distressing I thought would be easier to learn in a class.

 

 

So sure enough we signed up and our class was last weekend.  It was awesome and we learned so much! And one of our neighbors was there too, we should have a block painting party! : )

Here are some images from the interwebs that show chalk paint being used so you get an idea of what I am talking about:

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And here are some images to our sample pieces we worked on in class.  I'll tell you a bit about each piece, but not too much, since I don't really know what I am doing yet and am not ready to give advice! I need to practice a bit and now that I have a basic comfort level, I want to check out a few blog posts and learn a little more. : )

The paint seems pretty easy to use, but waxing it after painting was a little tricky.  The wax protects the paint and the finished piece once you are done with it.  You can use clear wax or a dark wax to get a more distressed look. 

 

These frames they had pre-painted a dark base coat, then we picked a topcoat.  Once the top coat dried, we distressed with sandpaper to take off the second coat and reveal the darker first coat.  Then one of us played with a metallic wax just to see how it would look. 

 

 

 

On the pieces of ornate frames (how fabulous btw) we used multiple colors, then would distress by wiping the paint off rather than sanding.  Know what colors to mix and how much to distress was a little tricky.  You can see ours look a little different.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This little piece of molding is where we tried the dark wax.  Pretty cool stuff!

 

 

Stay tuned since I have a old mirror, table and bench calling our for some Chalk Paint in the near future!  And if all goes well, I am sure I can find a lot more to paint!

Too Much Wine

Years ago, my friend Erika gave me this cute little book of watercolor sketches.  She had pointed out it might be fun to remove pages to frame. 

 

 

 

I agreed, but years have gone by and I have never framed anything....until now... I thumbed through the book to my favorite page and hit up Target to find a frame.

 

 

 

 

 

This one is my favorite. A little guy drinking wine from a straw and taking a little nap after drinking too much wine! ha! My kind of little guy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

I figured it made good dining room art. : )

 

 

Lovely Lady Things

Back between Christmas and New Years I decided to get a few misc. lady things for myself while my credit card was still nice and hot. You know, before the post holiday spending guilt sets in. : )

 

 

On the list, a few things from Rifle Paper Company, something made of Hobnail Milk Glass, Bakers Twine and Paper Straws!

From Rifle Paper Company I got coasters and gift tags.  For the bakers twine,  I decided on Red, Orange, Blue and Purple.  Is that enough? I might need more colors.  I coordinated my paper straws with similar colors.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then I set my sights to Etsy for some Hobnail Milk Glass.  I wanted a vase, but the first item I ordered was more of a planter, so back to Etsy again for another try.  Nailed it the second time.  And due to my mistake, I now have a planter AND a vase! : )

 

 

 

 

 

 

I got the straws and bakers twine from Save on Crafts and Hey Yo Yo.

 

Wreath Time

One more Christmas post, even though I know everyone is over Christmas.... : )

 

One of my winter tasks was making wreaths for our doors.  When Molly and I were at Michaels to pick up supplies for another craft, I got some wreath decorating supplies.  Fun Ribbon, Pine cones with painted tips and gold Christmas balls.  I know a 'red' scheme pops better from the street, but come on, gold...glitter... poka-dots, how could I saw no to that ribbon!?!? I also got thin dark green floral wire. The thinner wire you can cut with scissors, which is good since I don't know where my wire cutters went!

 

 

 

 

I wanted to support our local garden center to get my wreaths but they had slim pickings so I went to Home Depot...(boo don't get fresh greens at the big box store...) any way...moving on...

I had some time one day so I got to work....  The gold balls already had wire, so they were easy to twist into the greens to secure them.  I decided to wire them in in groups of 3. 

 

 

The pine cones did not have wire, but that is easy to add, just wrap the wire around the base, but tuck it into the cracks so you can't really see it.  They had plastic stakes, but I ripped those off.

 

 

 

Then the real challenge...make your bow..in hindsight I should have bought a bow, or had someone at work make my bow, since I didn't do that great of a job. haha It is way too big and lopsided...oh well, you win some you lose some!  And the way I made it, I cut little slits in it, so I couldn't redo it.  Good think I didn't bother taking photos of the steps I used to make the bow, since they wouldn't have been worth sharing! : )

 

 

But I think the average person thinks the bow looks fine, and the wreath does look nice.  And sometimes that needs to be good enough. : )

Gray Walls and Some Updates!

This project and these pictures are from months ago, but better late than never right? : )

 The back entry/laundry room/power room was high on my list to refresh once we moved in.  Not that we spend all the much time in those rooms, but the space was small so I figured it would be an easy and cheap makeover. 

Here are some before shots.  Nothing wrong with the space, but the ENTIRE house had yellow walls and it was time for a few of them to go!

I knew before we moved in that I wanted to do a yellow and gray scheme (Gray Walls, Yellow Accents), based around these fabulous yellow Target towels.   I had been eying them up for quite some time, and my awesome coworker surprised me with them for Christmas! Yay!

Step 1 – Inspiration Towels – CHECK!

Next up paint… I went to both Home Depot and Sherwin Williams and pretty much got every gray paint color swatch imaginable....I admit, it was a little ridiculous!

Then I spend a few days narrowing it down, narrowing it down, narrowing it down...Some were too taupe, some were too green, many were too blue, and many were too dark. I wanted a true gray.

Having my yellow sign helped, since I could tell what gray would play nicely against it, but I was still having trouble. My dad had come the day before painting so we could figure out what we needed and my mom came with him, which was awesome since she helped me pick the final color. She suggested going outside to see them in better lighting, and she also suggested grabbing my pillows from the front room to use since they had the true gray I was looking for.

With these suggestions, I finally got it narrowed down to 3......

Then I got it down to 1! Yay! Finally a color chosen! "Wood Smoke" by Glidden available at the Home Depot.

Step 2 – Pick Paint – CHECK!

Then my dad came over again and we got painting!!!! Goodbye yellow, Hello gray (and hello lovely contrast between gray wall and white trim!) Thanks Dad! You are the best!

It was pretty tight quarters for painting, especially in our teeny tiny power room but we got it done.

Step 3 – Make the paint a reality – CHECK!

Now that the painting was done, it was time for some decorating.  Yay!  I got yellow coat hooks from Target since even decor needs some function! (The coat closet is in the front, but we come in and out in the back).  I mentioned a yellow sign above, that yellow sigh is a wood painted sigh I got on Etsy.  “ You are my sunshine” is a welcome sight as you come home after a long day.  Plus my Grandma sang that to us as little kids, so that saying is extra special.  I actually had the vendor make it a little smaller than they had listed, which was awesome.  I didn’t want the sign too big, since you only view it close up since the room is so small.

  

 For the power room, step 1 was putting out my inspiration towels and step 2 was finding a mirror.  I knew I wanted a fun carved wood one, and since Home Good is the only place I could actually afford a mirror, I checked and rechecked the store every few weeks until I found one.  I had seen one I loved, but I thought it was going to be too big and didn’t buy it.  But Colin said as along as it techinally fits, and if I love it, to make it work! So I did! : )  It takes up the whole wall, but considering it is the only décor in the room, I think it is fabulous!!!!

Step 4 - Decorate and Personalize - CHECK!

Behold some After Photos!

There was a cabinet behind the toilet which I was planning on painting, but the room looks bigger without it, so for now it is just chilling in the garage. : )

We also updated the hardware on the one cabinet in the laundry area.  Such a simple and cheap change and it made a HUGE differerence!

So there you go, our updated back entry, laundry and power room!

P.S. Isn't that runner lovely! Too bad, the back entry has proven to be way too high traffic for things that are "lovely" and that rug has been rolled up in the closet for months! : ( Boo!
The dark cheap runner with the rubber bottom the old owner left us seems to fit the bill better.

Although I tend to live in an aesthetically driven world, I do bow down to function on occasion!
(Coat Hook and Rug also from Target, I just had trouble finding the link.)

Egg Prints

So as much as we got done filling and decorating our empty front room, it still needs a few more things.  And one of those things is art.  And one of the art pieces I wanted in the room was egg prints. See examples below.

 

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You can get actual old pages from books or reproductions.  I didn't have strong feelings one way or the other, but the frames I had in mind didn't fit the old pages, and reproductions are cheaper...so a decision was made! ha!  (I had bought nice frames a while ago from Pier1 that fit an 8x10 print, that had a nice burlap like mat and distressed white frame.)
 

 

I browsed Etsy, my go to, for quite some time picking the right ones. I found these and decided to take the plunge!

Bird Print 1

Bird Print 2

 

I was worried about the digital download but I figured for just a few dollars it was worth trying.  And Success! So don't turn away from the digital downloads kids!!! : )

 

I printed them at Kinkos, but the dimensions weren't working, so I messed with them in photoshop a bit, went to Kinkos again, still not right.....SO I decided to steal company resources and print them at work so I could keep tweaking in photoshop and not have to make a drive in between each try!

 

I am very happy with them, so classy if I do say so myself!
 

 

Speaking of Digital Downloads, I also considered getting these.  If you are in the market for cheap art in general, check out all the other fun stuff this vendor has.

 

One lingering question....Did I hang them too high??????

 

 

haha I know art should be eye level, so in that respect they are too high, BUT they are centered nicely on the portion of the wall between the ceiling and the start of the angle of the stairs.  Please weigh in...they are up with command strips so they can easily be brought down a bit....oh "failed attempts at being fabulous", I try!!! : )

 

(P.S. Don't remind Colin that these get me one step closer to being the crazy bird lady!)