Old Linen and new linen.

If you are familiar with Chalk Paint you will know that the European countries have a few colours not on the North American palette.  Original is one of them.  I even used to have a few different colours than  England because there used to be a factory in Belgium that made the paint for mainland Europe.  The factory in Belgium has since closed so now all of us in Europe get our paint from Oxford.  But I still have a few pots of paint from the old factory.  Old Linen is one of them.

This is a great colour.  It is a darker version of Country Grey.  I thought this style of chair would be super in Old Linen.  Of course it is a reproduction with a mixture of styles–just in need of an update.

So my little helper got to work with the brush.

 

Two coats of Old Linen hid the orangey oak colour.

While the chair was drying I removed the staples on the chair seat using this great tool.  It makes life so much easier.

And then once the old fabric was taken off I replaced it with this gorgeous new Polish linen that has a vintagey grain sack feel to it.

While my little helper did the waxing!

I then lightly distressed with 150 grit sandpaper added another coat of wax….and this is the final result!!

 

 

 

 

The shape of the chair is more apparent now- even showing the cute scrolling at the bottom–and most importantly hiding the awful orangey colour of the oak.

Colouring your wax!

A really great thing about using Annie Sloan products is the flexibility there is when painting.  This is a perfect example!!

Annie Sloan Soft Wax comes in clear and dark.  The dark is very dark brown and I normally use it when I want to give a piece an aged patina or something similar.

But what if you want to white wash a piece or create a verdigris effect?

Did you know it is possible to add Chalk Paint to your wax and then apply to dry paint?

Just think of the possibilities!

This is a table I painted a while ago.  It started out pretty sad looking but the legs are quite nice!

 

 

I painted the legs and apron with the colour Graphite.

And then I thought it might be interesting to mix a spoonful of Paris Grey into the clear wax.

 

And then I applied the wax to the legs.

I did like this a lot but I thought the colour was a bit flat.

So then I mixed some Monet Blue with clear wax.

And applied this on top.

 

Then I gave it a light distressing to highlight the shape a bit as well as giving it a buff.  This gave it a bit of a kick!  I am trying to figure out what it looks like- maybe pewter or a metal?  I like it a lot.  I don’t have a photo of the full piece but I also did the coloured wax on the top- It has a base of white and then the blue and grey waxes on top.

This technique is really great if you want to white wash something.  Now there is no need to buy white wax- you can simply add a spoonful of Old White to clear wax.  Or perhaps you would like to create a patina that isn’t brown but more grey?  Add some Graphite to the wax.  I have painted a verdigris effect before by adding Antibes to clear wax.  It  can also be done with Provence or Florence.

Hopefully this will tempt you to try something you may never have thought possible!