If you love the look of French market style distressed furniture and accessories than you will love working with Annie Sloan chalk paint. Over the weekend I took a class on painting and distressing furniture using this type of chalk paint. I had wanted to start painting some furniture and I had read reviews that her paint was very easy to use. I headed over to The Little Black Chair in Littleton, Colorado www.thelittleblackchair.net where I took the three hour class. In those few hours I learned six different distressing techniques. The paint is absolutely wonderful to use. It has virtually no odor, there is no priming required, and it dries very fast. You can paint indoors which is fabulous. The only prep work you need to do is if you are working with metal (furniture hardware for example) you need to do a quick sanding, or if your furniture is very greasy you will need to clean it first with TSP. The beauty of this paint is really in the finishing wax. You need to purchase the wax in order to harden the paint and create the aging effects. It is a bit of investment at first but the paint goes a long way and I was told you can get up to 3 dressers from the 32 OZ container. I wanted to try a few small projects with the paint before I tackled my first big project so I started with this tray from the dollar store. You can use this same technique I am showing you on furniture. I will be sharing some more fun projects using this paint. If you want to take a class check out the Annie Sloan website for classes http://www.anniesloan.com/.
To make this tray you will need:
Metal Tray (I found mine at The Dollar Tree, I have a link at the bottom of the page if there is not one near you).
Annie Sloan Old White Chalk Paint (for retailers www.anniesloan.com, or online www.thelittleblackchair.net).
Annie Sloan Soft Wax in Clear
Annie Sloan Soft Wax in Dark
Paint Brushes (I used 1 1/2" to paint, and 2" for wax).
Brush for Wax
Cheesecloth
Sandpaper (I used 250 but any medium or fine paper will work).
Mineral Spirits (for cleaning the wax off the brush).
Take a small piece of sand paper and do a quick sanding on the tray. I just lightly buffed it with the sandpaper.
Paint one coat of Annie Sloan Old White paint. Let dry.
Paint a second coat of Old White if needed. (My tray needed two coats).
Take a piece of sand paper and gently rub the raised areas on the tray. Try to distress what areas would naturally wear off the tray (don't sand all over).
Take a small blob of clear wax and a small blob of dark wax and put them onto a paper plate or paint tray.
Using your brush apply the clear wax by dabbing it into the wax and rubbing it all over the tray, pressing the wax into the crevices. Put on a very light amount of wax. It shouldn't be thick.
Wipe the tray well with cheesecloth to smooth out the wax. You will notice the piece will start to look totally different once the wax is applied. It goes from very chalky to a hardened paint look finish.
Next use a different brush to apply the dark wax into the cervices on the tray. Depending on how "aged" you want your tray decide if you want to apply the dark wax all over, or just in the crevices. I used it all over on mine but went a little heavier into the raised areas.
Rub well with the cheesecloth to smooth and buff the wax.
Now apply a last layer of the Clear Wax and rub well with cheesecloth.
Wash your paint brush with water. Clean your wax brush by soaking in some mineral spirits then rinse.
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XOX,
The Rebel Crafter
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