​One of the things we pride ourselves on in our shop is the fact that we freely share information.  

If we know how to do something, we want our customers to know it also.  

Often after we share a tip our customers will ask 'how do you know all this?' Paul and I reply that we've had a lot of practice. But that's only part of the truth.

The full story is that a lot of practice is accompanied by a good number of mistakes. Sometimes it takes a little playing around with a new product or technique to learn all the things you can do with it...and what you probably shouldn't do...or what you should do differently.

​I’ve written about inspiration before, and for good reason.  Paul and I know that inspiration can come from anywhere so it’s important to keep your eyes open.

A few weeks ago, during one of our Chalk Paint® 101: The Basics workshops, a participant named Barb added a little too much water to her 2nd paint color on the two-color wet distress.  She was looking at it and feeling a little disappointed that it didn’t look like the finish created by another participant who used the same color combination.  Paul however, was really taken with the finish. 

Every year starting in the spring our custom painting schedule starts to fill up with furniture that have one thing in common - they’re going to a beach house. 
 
Painting beach house furniture is fun because for a lot of people, the beach house is less formal, more fun, and the decorating is a little more colorful. 
 
However, you don’t need a house at the beach to love the coastal look.  The casual feel is so comfortable that this style is at home just about anywhere...

This week we finished a new piece and it’s generating a lot of questions…What paint color is that?  How did you do the copper?  What was it finished with? 
 
So, in today’s post we’ll break it down for you and explain just how we created this look. 

Just like the Paisley Piece, this buffet was something Paul and I have had for a very long time.  In fact, when we purchased it, we didn’t have any immediate finishing plan (and it was too large to fit easily down the stairs into our studio space), so we decided to use it in our own dining room until we felt inspired. 

​Replicating another finish is actually very difficult but it was a fun challenge for us and Peggy was enormously pleased with the result and sent us these pics from the table in it's new place in her home. Enjoy! (we've also included a photo of the original Ethan Allen piece)

​Paul and I do a lot of complicated finishes and custom mixed colors on our furniture but this desk is a great example of painted furniture done in the simplest way.  

​The outside of piece was painted with just one coat of Duck Egg Blue Chalk Paint® by Annie Sloan and the inside was painted with one coat of Versailles. Next, we sanded lightly with 220 sandpaper to distress then we applied Annie Sloan's Clear Soft Wax.  The top of the desk was stripped (using our favorite - CitriStrip) then we simply applied Annie Sloan's Dark Wax to stain and seal the wood. The entire piece was finished in just a few hours!

We’re in the homestretch of our French Inspired Chair project, the body of the chair is finished – painted, waxed and distressed and now we moved onto the seat. 
 
The fabric was stained so we replaced it with a natural linen fabric.  Whenever we change out fabric on a chair, we also take the opportunity to also replace the foam and batting. Once the new seat was finished, we taped out our grain sack pattern and painted it in Greek Blue Chalk Paint.  When it was dry we used sandpaper on the blue stripes to get rid of the freshness and 'age' them a bit.

Our final step was to sew a simple cover for a pillow form that we purchased.  We used the same tan linen that we used to cover the seat then made a dye bath by adding Greek Blue Chalk Paint to water and then dip dyed the pillow cover.  We hung it up to dry then ironed it and inserted our pillow form.  

​Here are the steps we are working through on this project:
1.Apply a ‘chunky’ base coat of Greek Blue Chalk Paint® by Annie Sloan
2.Apply a top coat of Paris Grey Chalk Paint®
3.Wax and Distress the Paris Grey to reveal the Greek Blue underneath
4.Reupholster the chair seat
5.Use Greek Blue Chalk Paint® to create a grain sack stripe on the chair seat
6.Sew a cover for a throw pillow and dye the fabric using Chalk Paint®
 
Recovering chair seats and dyeing fabric are things that we are frequently asked about and we’ve done private workshops for people who want a hands-on lesson but Paul and I have plans to create some step-by-step tutorials on several topics and Recovering Chair Seats and Dyeing Fabric will be two of our first tutorials.
 
Tomorrow we'll show you our French Inspired Chair and Console Table Together AND we will announce the winner of our 'Creating the French Look' in-store contest!
Johanna & Paul

Our French Inspired Chair project is moving right along and today Paul waxed and distressed the chair while I recovered and painted a grain sack stripe on the chair seat (tomorrow’s post).
 
Here are the steps we are working through on this project:
1.Apply a ‘chunky’ base coat of Greek Blue Chalk Paint® by Annie Sloan
2.Apply a top coat of Paris Grey Chalk Paint®
3.Wax and Distress the Paris Grey to reveal the Greek Blue underneath
4.Reupholster the chair seat
5.Use Greek Blue Chalk Paint® to create a grain sack stripe on the chair seat
6.Sew a cover for a throw pillow and dye the fabric using Chalk Paint®
 
Paul applied clear wax to the entire chair, then using our new Annie Sloan sanding pads, he sanded the Paris Grey paint off the textured areas revealing the Greek Blue underneath.  He then applied another light coat of clear wax.  Besides being a really pretty look, this technique (wax-sand-wax) also creates a finish that is really beautiful to touch.   

​The chair is finished, now onto the seat!!

Johanna & Paul

We are getting really excited about this our French Inspired Chair project and it’s moving right along.
 
Here are the steps we will be working through on this project:

1. Apply a ‘chunky’ base coat of Greek Blue Chalk Paint® by Annie Sloan
2. Apply a top coat of Paris Grey Chalk Paint®
3. Wax and Distress the Paris Grey to reveal the Greek Blue underneath
4. Reupholster the chair seat
5. Use Greek Blue Chalk Paint® to create a grain sack stripe on the chair seat
6. Sew a cover for a throw pillow and dye the fabric using Chalk Paint®

 
If you remember, in Step 1 we painted the entire chair in a base coat of Greek Blue Chalk Paint®. 
Now it’s time to cover the blue with Paris Grey Chalk Paint®.

Paul applied the Paris Grey in a smooth, slightly watered down coat.  We aren’t really concerned about any areas that are a little sheer because we are going for a rustic, two color finish and seeing a little blue through the grey will just add to the look.
 
Stay tuned...next we wax and distress!
Johanna & Paul 

This week we are moving on to our second "Creating the French Look" project.  This one was inspired by the chair on the cover of Annie Sloan's Creating the French Look. 

​Here are the steps we will be working through on this project:

1. Apply a ‘chunky’ base coat of Greek Blue Chalk Paint® by Annie Sloan
2. Apply a top coat of Paris Grey Chalk Paint®
3. Wax and Distress the Paris Grey to reveal the Greek Blue underneath
4. Reupholster the chair seat
5. Use Greek Blue Chalk Paint® to create a grain sack stripe on the chair seat
6. Sew a cover for a throw pillow and dye the fabric using Chalk Paint®

Whew…that’s a lot of cool techniques and we’re eager to get started sharing the project with you.  So let’s get started!!

Our chair is solid and well made with pretty detail on the back but it was dirty so before we started, Paul removed the seat and gave it a good cleaning with Krud Kutter (our favorite) and then a quick rinse with clean water and it was ready to go!

​Paul started by applying a chunky, textured coat of Greek Blue.  After it dried, he decided to add a second quick, textured coat just to ensure that we see plenty of the blue through the distressing.

 Next step – applying a top coat of Paris Grey!

Johanna & Paul

Coming into the homestretch on our French inspired console table and Paul was eager to get it done.  When I left to make lunch, Annie Sloan’s Step 1 Craqueleur was applied to the top and was drying. 

By the time I came back, it was done!! Paul had applied Step 2 Craqueleur, let it dry and then used dark wax to highlight all the great cracking.

Crackle Varnished Console Table Steps:
1. Paint a coat of Louis Blue Chalk Paint® by Annie Sloan
2.Paint a smooth coat of Old White Chalk Paint® by Annie Sloan
3.Clear wax & distress apron & legs
4.Apply gold leaf to the edge of the table top
5.Apply Step 1 & Step 2 Craqueleur to top & over gold leafed edge
6.Apply dark wax to the Craqueleured top & gold leafed edge 

Our French Style Console table (above left) was inspired by the Crackle Varnished Console Table on page 47 of Annie Sloan's Creating the French Look (above right). It looks amazing and was really easy to do!  We will show off the final result when we finish with this week's project - a Chair that will get the 'French treatment.' This project is inspired by the chair on the cover of Creating the French Look.

The next step on our table project was to apply gold leaf to the edge.  Gold leaf is always fun to do because it always looks spectacular when it’s done.  We used Annie Sloan’s Gold Size, sheets of gold leaf and some brushes and...wow.  

​Everyone who came into the store while we were working on it was mesmerized. 

Continuing on with our ‘Creating the French Look’ console table, on Sunday we clear waxed then distressed the base and apron of the table.  If you remember in Step 1 Paul painted a chunky, textured coat of Louis Blue and in Step 2 we painted Old White over the blue.