Annie Sloan Chalk Paint turns out to be the Solution to our Pine Furniture Problem

After years of wanting to, I've finally painted a piece of furniture and I'm delira! 

When we moved into our existing house there were no built in wardrobes or storage. We were lucky to be given some pine wardrobes and chests of drawers which work fine but look not so great.  Because our walls are painted white and our floors are wooden, the pine furniture adds nothing to the decor which is in need of a colour pop here and there. I've always wanted to paint them but was discouraged by hubby and others with tales of having to sand and prime and how hard it would be to get an uniform finish. 

When I read about Annie Sloan Chalk paint which works without priming etc... I was dying to try it. I decided to start with a tall chest of drawers which sits in our hall. 

Before: How yucky. Pardon the photo. I had no intention of blogging about this when I took it.

I visited Moss Cottage interiors shop in Dundrum, stockists of Annie Sloan chalk paint. My husband and I had decided on a bright blue for this chest of drawers which didn't match any of the Annie Sloan colours. We wanted to use just one colour (starting easy) and a modern contemporary look rather than a distressed finish. Jen Cleary, of Moss Cottage explained exactly how to prepare and paint the furniture and advised me I would need to mix two paints to get the shade I wanted. I was a bit put off by the idea of that but she assured me it would be very easy and so it turned out to be. 

Jen sold me a 1 litre tin of Pure chalk paint (which is a white shade), a Provence Sample Pot 100 ml (which is an turquoise blue green shade), and a 500 ml tin of Annie Sloan Soft Wax. She advised me to empty half of the litre tin  of the white colour into a lunch box and then to mix  in a small amount of the Provence colour in until I was happy with the shade. Jen told me the paint would dry to a darker shade. 

I ended up adding about three quarters of the Provence bottle to white paint before I got what I wanted. It still looked quite light but when it dried on the furniture was absolutely perfect.

To start I very lightly sanded the chest and individual drawers and wiped it with warm soapy water. I'm not sure the sanding made any difference. I then applied the paint with a brush. Jen had encouraged me to load my brush quite heavily and not to apply to paint too thin. 

Before paint is applied. Look at that sloppy prep work (but that is how I roll). No wonder my husband won't let me paint. (See below).

The drawers. There are many. In hindsight, it was quite a big piece for my first go.

It took a while to apply the first coat. The paint, being quite thick, needed to be worked into the wood a bit but it wasn't too hard to achieve a smooth finish.  I used a 37mm brush for the bulk of the chest and a smaller 25 mm brush for the trim and knobs. When painting the drawers, I soon realised it was easier to start with the knobs first, then the trim and finally the rest of the drawer front.

De brushes.

The first coat dried in less than two hours and I had achieved quite good coverage but there were areas where the original finish was visible so a second coat was definitely needed. The second coat went on quicker than the first but it was thick to apply and I had to work quickly to make sure the paint coated evenly before it dried. I used up all the paint I had mixed in the end. I was both too lazy to mix up more and unsure I could replicate the exact shade again, so I ended up scraping out the last dregs to finish off the final drawer but I made it (you could say).

After the first coat. Relatively neat. If I can do it....

My husband is the painter in our house. He is meticulous when painting and works for a neat and perfect finish. I'm sure it irks him when I pick up a paint brush so insistant is he that I do ANYTHING that involves me leaving the house, like go out shopping or meeting friends when he is painting. I was conscious of that when I was painting the chest as I had visions of him grimacing whenever he opened a drawer or even walked by the chest. But he thought the finish was great so thumbs up with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint. (And perhaps an early warning sign that he is a candidate for glasses, but shh, say nothing.)

Messy work area and yes I did step in the lunch box of paint to the foreground beside drawer,

I applied two coats of paint on Saturday and on Sunday I finished the project off by applying a layer of Annie Sloan Soft Wax with a brush. I buffed it up with a clean cloth about an hour later. This step is essential to protect the furniture, keep it clean and to improve the finish. In theory, if I had started a bit earlier and was quicker, I could have finished the entire project in one day! While waxing I concluded that the finish I had achieved was perhaps more rustic than sleek and contemporary. I therefore exhorted my husband not to look too closely. In general though I far prefer it now to how it looked before.

Ta Dah, the finished piece brightens up our hall and we are as I said before delira and also excira.

I have paint and wax left over from this project for others and lots of other hideouso furniture to use it on, so I will be kept going for the next while. Yay!