While in Victoria last week visiting a friend I stumbled across a wonderful store on Oak Bay Ave called
French Vanilla. I immediately fell in love with the painted furniture. (Men, turn away, I am talking about painting wood!) The paint finishes were all lovely soft fresh colors, all done with chalk paint. What! a painted finish I haven't tried? I purchased two tester pots, one in cream the other duck egg. Check out
Annie Sloan Chalk Paint here. Lovely!
When I got home I searched high a low for items I could paint (I wanted to do my dining table but alas I only had sample pots). So an old metal table lamp that I had been thinking to spray paint black (yes, quite a jump I know) and a sort of tacky gold picture frame that was hanging around were my first victims. They look GREAT in cream. I'm showing the before pictures last because I always like to lead with the better photo!
I found this mirror on Oak Bay Ave as well in a consignment shop. I think I paid $10 for it. This really was a tacky gold frame but the mirror is in great shape and the detail work was pretty.
It looks so good in the duck egg blue! YIPPEE - that I just had to repaint over my cream picture frame.... much better :)
I purchased this little teapot trivet on my Coombs trip specifically to paint.
And here it is.... TADA.... using
my very own homemade chalk paint. I should say while the Annie Sloan paint is fantastic!!! it is
very expensive. There are a ton of recipes for homemade chalk paint out there but I went with the simplest one I could find. I had a 2oz tester of Benjamin Moore called Harbor Haze 2136-60. I put 1 TBSP of plaster of paris in a glass jar, added 1 TBPS of hot water and mixed well, then added the 2 oz of paint and continued to mix until totally blended. It has the same consistency as the Annie Sloan paint and went on the trivet perfectly. The finishing touch for all chalk paint projects is waxing (this is what gives it the super smooth feel and the protection it needs). The Annie Sloan wax was around $36 for 16oz and I am way too cheap for that so I have some Johnson paste wax coming from Ebay for $7. (can't find it anywhere on the Island) I can't wait. If it all works out I'm mixing some sun dried tomato and painting my dining room table!
