Shabby Chic Refinishing Using Annie Sloan Paint: Color Change When You Want To Keep The Chippy Finish

In progress: before glazing.

Before

I grew weary of the shabby green & gilt finish on my mass produced c. 1930 French style cabriole leg table and its unproportionally small center wreath applique, especially after seeing this at my friend's antique store...

She's not into it the look any longer, but I was in love with French Neo-classical and wanted to change the color -- but not the patina. 

This is not a weekend project.  It involves gesso-like crackle paint, antiquing solution, and a lot of distressing.  Here's what to do:

Rub the end of a paraffin wax candle over any spots that reveal the original finish.   After painting and distressing, the new color comes off and exposes the original wood.

Select a crackling accelerator and spread it places the table would've seen wear over the years, such as sun damage from a window.  I like DecoArt Texture Crackle ($5) and DecoArt Weathered Wood ($5) from Michael's. 

Above is the effect from  DecoArt Texture Crackle.  It needs to dry for a day or two.

Above is the effect from DecoArt Weathered Wood.  On the left is Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Paris Grey ($15 for the 100ml sample size) applied over the crackle painted on both horizontally and vertically with a crappy old nylon bristle brush.  On the right is the effect with paint over crackle done in one direction.  If you leave the crakle to dry until tacky it crackles more.  I usually brush paint on over it as soon as they won't blend together.  The crazing is more subtle.  Be sure to use craft or interior paint; leftover exterior paint resists crackling.

Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Original.  I used another white craft paint in areas, because you need 3 shades of white to make a good rich patina.

I wished the center wreath applique was as wide as the side appliques from Do It Yourself Chic.  Unable to find one online I made one out of craft foam board and fake flowers.  Nail a few brads into the area, hang your form to verify placement.

Pull the fake flowers apart and rearrange as a wreath with hot glue.  Spray paint it white until all the color is gone.  Mix a small batch of plaster of paris the texture of cream and paint on.   Keep making fresh when it gets gooey.   Let dry thoroughly, touch up and let dry again.   This wreath is fragile so if the object gets a lot of bumps you're better off with a resin applique bought online.

Wet a rag and apply an antiquing glaze like Valspar's Antiquing Glaze from Lowe's ($14) in small workable sections.  When a section is damp, distress it with an old pair of scissors, your fingernails, a bit of heavy chain (I avoid sandpaper because the finish looks like manufactured distressed furniture to me).  Be random.  Let the cats use it as a scratching post.  Let the kids kick at it and doodle then cover it up so it has that lived-with look.  Really scrape the feet hard as they would show damage after a century.  Hitting fresh paint with a blow dryer on high will bubble paint like sun damage.  Warning: antiquing glaze stains the gesso-like substances like plaster of paris faster than paint.

Someone once asked me 'how do you get that really authentic distressed look?'  I said I left the table on a screen porch or drafty dusty garage all winter and in the summer if I wasn't using it to get blistering and shredding.  Don't allow water on it; it de-laminates and weakens joints.

Also don't allow it to catch on fire.   I wish I could show you the "after" picture but the table was 'seasoning' in my unfinished home when it burnt down.  The only thing left was part of the side (circled) and even that's been cremated.

I walked this table to my dorm from a flea market near Wheaton College in Massachusetts, enjoyed it for years, and spent money and worked very hard on this refinishing.  It's gone now and I can accept it and let go without anger.  Not every project in life works out.  But you learn from every project.

Send me any questions you have on refinishing furniture if you like!

Until next time, stay shabby!

Sharing with:

White Wednesday at Faded Charm

Wow Us Wednesday at Savvy Southern Style

Favorite Things Thursday at Katherine's Corner

Creative Things Thursday at The Vintage Farmhouse

Transformation Thursday at The Shabby Creek Cottage 

Show & Tell Friday at My Romantic Home

Feathered Nest Friday at The French Country Cottage

My Burlap Pillow Won at Bella Rustica’s Giveaway

VII
Come, fill the Cup, and in the Fire of Spring
The Winter Garment of Repentance fling:
The Bird of Time has but a little way
To fly – and Lo! the Bird is on the Wing.

from the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam revised by Edward Fitzgerald



Elegant elegance is lovely, but rustic elegance is liveable.

And when the product is handmade and ‘all proceeds are donated to Those Who Do or someone who is doing for animals but needs a little help’, how can you resist being chic and conscientious?

Kim Kelly, the artist behind Bella Rustica Market, relays, “I personally make each pillow…I begin with cutting the burlap and then I surge the edges for a professional finish.  After the down & feather pillow form is placed I finish the pillow by hand.  Burlap is tricky to work with but the results are elegant yet rustic, a perfect combination.”

Want to get the look?   Be sure to check out Kim’s “The Elegance of Rustic Series” on her blog.  She’s redecorated her new Simons Island, Georgia home room by room in the Italian elegant rustic style, and includes her tips, sources, and breathtaking pictures from her inspiration file.

Mille grazie, Kim!

Until next time, stay shabby!

Sharing with:

White Wednesday at Faded Charm

What's It Wednesday at Ivy & Elephants

Wow Us Wednesday at Savvy Southern Style

Favorite Things Thursday at Katherine's Corner

Creative Things Thursday at The Vintage Farmhouse

Transformation Thursday at The Shabby Creek Cottage

Feathered Nest Friday at The French Country Cottage

Farmhouse Friday at LaurieAnna's Vintage Home

Vintage Inspiration Friday at Common Ground

Show & Tell Friday at My Romantic Home

Introductory Offer: Jeanne d'Arc Living Magazine on sale at My Shabby Streamside Studio for $14 bucks!

Photos: Jeanne d'Arc Living

Lonnie and Vivian over at JDL are making a huge investment to grow their American audience: absorbing the shipping fee for a year. Won’t you help them achieve their dream of growing an audience to the point where they can print in the U.S.?

I'm waiving the shipping on the first order myself.

Click on the PayPal button below to order.

“What if I pre-ordered at $26?”

I will refund every order the $12 I owe starting tonight. (Thanks to every person that pre-ordered.)

Jeanne d’Arc Living is a Danish indie magazine that sucessfully challenges the way romantic lifestyle publications are done.  It is truly like purchasing a very good book every month.  It’s translated to English (charmingly at times), free of advertising, and printed on heavy paper.

Interior décor, entertaining, recipes, gardening, crafts, shops, and more all in the elegant “Dansk-Fransk” or French-Nordic style await you.

It inspires me and alerts me to trends so much I for one can’t miss it.  Period.

SOLD OUT April Issue 

Until next time, stay shabby!

Sharing with:

White Wednesday at Faded Charm

Feathered Nest Friday at The French Country Cottage

Show & Tell Friday at My Romantic Home

Shabby Chic With Pink

Photo: Emma Mattsson

My making my announcement on Thursday.  

Hint: it's Danish.

Until next time, stay shabby!

Sharing with:

White Wednesday at Faded Charm

Wow Us Wednesday at Savvy Southern Style

What's It Wednesday at Ivy & Elephants

Favorite Things Thursday at Katherine's Corner

Creative Things Thursday at The Vintage Farmhouse

Show & Tell Friday at My Romantic Home

Vintage Inspiration Friday at Common Ground

Farmhouse Friday at LaurieAnna's Vintage Home

Feathered Nest Friday at The French Country Cottage

Beverly's Pink Saturday at How Sweet The Sound

My Loft by Emma Mattsson

o sweet spontaneous

o sweet spontaneous

earth how often have

the

doting

            fingers of

prurient philosophers pinched

and

poked

thee

,has the naughty thumb

of science prodded

thy

     beauty       .how

often have religions taken

thee upon their scraggy knees

squeezing and

buffeting thee that thou mightest conceive

gods

      (but

true

to the incomparable

couch of death thy

rhythmic

lover

            thou answerest

  them only with

                        spring)

e.e. cummings

This time next week I will announce my big announcement.  I can't wait.

Until next time, stay shabby!

Sharing with:

White Wednesday at Faded Charm

Wow Us Wednesday at Savvy Southern Style

What's It Wednesday at Ivy & Elephants

Favorite Things Thursday at Katherine's Corner

Creative Things Thursday at The Vintage Farmhouse

Show & Tell Friday at My Romantic Home

Vintage Inspiration Friday at Common Ground

Farmhouse Friday at LaurieAnna's Vintage Home

Feathered Nest Friday at The French Country Cottage

Images of Emma Mattsson

There are interior photographers that breeze in and out of your home, get the shots the editor asked for, and split before the good evening light comes because they'd rather get an early reservation at a hip eatery.  And then there are photographers like Emma Mattsson.

Emma, still in her 20s, shoots many different kinds of homes and businesses for her ‘reportage’ (rep-port-TAYGE) to Scandinavian publications.  Her business card is very sleek and sexy: a black and white abstract image of two young women’s bodies fused together.  I was delighted to watch her work with stylist/writer Petra Kjellstroem at my studio, excited to see how a chic European woman would interpret my cottage.

After she got the shots she needed the light grew too bright and we went to an early dinner.  Returning, the light turned autumnal and golden.  She went up to my loft after Isuggested I light the candles and lamp, and shot.  And shot and shot.  It was like watching a dancer.  Bowing, bending, ear to the floor, then leaning left, right, forward, back, always closer and closer.  

Emma ‘got’ what I tried to do with a fantasy space, and shot it in the way a romantic would see it.  And the gift of her interpretation of my cottage is priceless.  I love the way Emma saw it.

Until next time, stay shabby!

Sharing with:

White Wednesday at Faded Charm

Wow Us Wednesday at Savvy Southern Style

What's It Wednesday at Ivy & Elephants

Favorite Things Thursday at Katherine's Corner

Show & Tell Friday at My Romantic Home

Vintage Inspiration Friday at Common Ground

Farmhouse Friday at LaurieAnna's Vintage Home

Feathered Nest Friday at The French Country Cottage

Beverly's Pink Saturday at How Sweet The Sound

More Skona Hem Photos

Leisure

What is this life if, full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare?

No time to stand beneath the boughs

And stare as long as sheep or cows.

No time to see, when woods we pass,

Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.

No time to see, in broad daylight,

Streams full of scars, like skies at night.

No time to turn at Beauty’s glance,

And watch her feet, how they can dance.

No time to wait till her mouth can

Enrich that smile her eyes began.

A poor life this if, full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare.

W.H. Davies

I love sharing Emma & Petra's work for Skona Hem.

Speaking of Scandinavian things: I have a great offering later this month.  Stay tuned.

Until next time, stay shabby!

Sharing with:

White Wednesday at Faded Charm

Wow Us Wednesday at Savvy Southern Style

What's It Wednesday at Ivy & Elephants

Favorite Things Thursday at Katherine's Corner

Show & Tell Friday at My Romantic Home

Vintage Inspiration Friday at Common Ground

Farmhouse Friday at LaurieAnna's Vintage Home

Feathered Nest Friday at The French Country Cottage

Beverly's Pink Saturday at How Sweet The Sound

Dainty Shabby French Neo-Classical Decor

Begin doing what you want to

do now.  We are not living in

eternity.  We have only this moment,

sparkling like a star in our hand –

and melting like a snowflake.

--Marie Beynon Ray

For the remainder of the month I'm going to reveal photos of the loveliest shoot done at my studio cottage.

I tried to get these images published in Rachel Ashwell's Shabby Chic Inspirations book by way of telling Rachel over the phone they were my favorite of all.  In October 2010 young photographer Emma Mattsson and stylist/writer Petra Kjellstroem flew all the way from Stockholm to shoot homes in Manhattan and Upstate New York on speculation.  Lucky for us Skona Hem (Sweet Home) -- the top interior design magazine in Sweden -- bought the story for their November 2011 issue.

You may notice, gentle reader, I've watermarked the photo.  I don't like the distraction of watermarks, but Pinterest has altered the online playing field so much not only am I forced to do this but I'm creating an account there in an attempt to give credit to photographers, stylists, and print publications.

The photo above is a shot of my mantel with a lovely c. 1920 shabby white oval mirror with swags and ghosted glass for $299 at Sandi of A Cottage Muse's booth at The Wrentham Country Store in Massachusetts.  The candlesticks are yard sale finds I paid $2 - $12 for each.

Dainty pale pink paper roses stamped with French writing add a soft touch: try these from artist Angela Harris.  

Until next time, stay shabby!

Sharing with:

White Wednesday at Faded Charm

 Favorite Things Thursday at Katherine's Corner

Show & Tell Friday at My Romantic Home

Vintage Inspiration Friday at Common Ground

Farmhouse Friday at LaurieAnna's Vintage Home

Feathered Nest Friday at The French Country Cottage

Beverly's Pink Saturday at How Sweet The Sound

Nailhead Trim: Refined or Raw

Above, an elegant chair (long since sold) from the 1stdibs space in New York from Disegno Karina Gentinetta.  She uses a strip of same-fabric (natural cotton muslin) seam tape and places the nails evenly.

Above, a deconstructed chair in Sweden exposing very raw burlap and nails from the book Vintage by Nina by Nina Hartmann with photos by Maria Isabel Hansson.

On the far left with black legs, a chair between refined and raw in the incomparable Norwegian home of Jannicke Helgesen of Lille vildand.

The exposed nail head look blends with vintage, shabby, industrial, French, Nordic, farmhouse, and country styles.  It looks great dressed up or down!

Steel upholstery tacks

Ask at your independently owned hardware store (or Jo-Ann, A.C. Moore, Michael’s, Home Depot, Lowe’s, etc.) for 3/8” steel upholstery tacks.   They may say ‘black’, but they will be all different colors like gunmetal, charcoal, and graphite.   A small package costs about $3.

Update: on 7 February 2012 La Brocanteuse published a very good, almost scholarly, post on stripped down upholstery.  

This post was supposed to unveil my new daybed bought for $5 at a yard sale, over-plumpy with Euro square pillows and a fat mooshy white linen cushion.   The covering over the bottom was to be more linen tacked on with steel upholstery tacks.   It all burnt in the fire that destroyed my unfinished home, but someday I’ll find something else.   Something even better.

I send everyone hugs back for your support.  You are all so sweet.

Until next time, stay shabby!

Sharing with:

White Wednesday at Faded Charm

Wow Us Wednesday at Savvy Southern Style

What's It Wednesday at Ivy & Elephants

Favorite Things Thursday at Katherine's Corner

Show & Tell Friday at My Romantic Home

Vintage Inspiration Friday at Common Ground

Farmhouse Friday at LaurieAnna's Vintage Home

Feathered Nest Friday at The French Country Cottage

To help someone is a marvelous gift to give

Interior detail of  'A Memories Purse'  by U.K. artist/author

Krissie Karlson of  Shabbily By The Sea

(Reprinted with permission)

To help someone is a marvelous gift to give and can mean the world to the person you are helping whether the favor is big or small.....in gratitude I made a purse of winter white.......

Lawn cotton, broderie anglaise, and lace stitched together from petticoats and dresses of  Summers gone by....the lace loop to go over her wrist as she tip toes over her stream is a little tattered and torn just the way she likes her treasures.......a lace bow to tie and hold the things that are dear to her.......

Photo: Krissie Karlson

Inside, a tied bundle of old lace and a vintage bobbin of cotton to remind her of all the things she has created in white with her own hands that have brought joy to so many......

On the opposite page sits a carved wooden button of a Viola, a beautiful wild flower to keep close her love of her wild flowers while they are sleeping through the Winter....a tiny white shell from a 'Sandy' beach......a crystal bead to remind her of the chandelier hanging over her bed in her studio and two buttons from France: one is mother of pearl and the other is glass to show her love of shabby French decor....and a safety pin to attach her thoughts to her haven from the outside world while she is away....

Text by Krissie Karlson, Shabbily By The Sea, 2011

What I did for Krissie really was no big deal; her dream would find her considering her talent.  She felt the need to send a token of her appreciation.  I keep this on the doorknob of my room so every time I see it I am open to dreaming of the future once more, finding solace in the handmade, the sentimental, and the spell of old lace.

Catch up with her in Creating Vintage Charm Issue No. 6 (Fall 2011).  Krissie also writes a fascinating blog, weaving in and out of the real and the magical.  She's restoring a beach home with family ties to her childhood, and makes pretty things: all in all a great blog to follow.

I am still receiving messages of hope from you all in regard to my recent tragedies.  You help me.  And that is a marvelous gift to give.

Until next time, stay shabby!

Sharing with:

White Wednesday at Faded Charm

Wow Us Wednesday at Savvy Southern Style

What's It Wednesday at Ivy & Elephants

Favorite Things Thursday at Katherine's Corner

Show & Tell Friday at My Romantic Home

Vintage Inspiration Friday at Common Ground

Feathered Nest Friday at The French Country Cottage

A Seawashed Gift On My Shore

 The Artist: Calm, Pacific, Seawashed.

Meet Kerrie Sanderson of California

I read every one of your comments of comfort following the blaze that destroyed my unfinished home and the death of my marriage.  I learn I am not alone in this sort of loss...many of you shared how you made it through the same heartbreak.  

Your heartfelt sentiments will help me heal.  My gratitude is...boundless.

Whenever I get "too much" in my eyes from staying online, I turn to my friend and fellow blogger Kerrie Sanderson's Seawashed.  Her natural materials and palette reflect the beauty of the Pacific.  But the lovely thing is you really feel serenity, calm, patience...a baptism by the eternal sea and all it can teach.

This is something I knew years ago, and though the Atlantic is a 15 minute drive away I never make the time to get there more than 2 – 3 times a summer.

Her reply to my letter of thanks was:

" I hope it brings you some calm in the midst of the debris you are wading through from the storm."

Visit Kerrie at her Etsy and Facebook to experience the art resulting from her meditations with the sea.

Until next time, stay shabby!

Sharing with:

White Wednesday at Faded Charm

Wow Us Wednesday at Savvy Southern Style

What's It Wednesday at Ivy & Elephants

Favorite Things Thursday at Katherine's Corner

Leisure

What is this life if, full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare?

No time to stand beneath the boughs

And stare as long as sheep or cows.

No time to see, when woods we pass,

Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.

No time to see, in broad daylight,

Streams full of scars, like skies at night.

No time to turn at Beauty’s glance,

And watch her feet, how they can dance.

No time to wait till her mouth can

Enrich that smile her eyes began.

A poor life this if, full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare.

                                                                                      W.H. Davies