My new Chalk Paint® Workbook

My son Felix and I have been working together again to create a really useful Chalk Paint® Workbook, grouped into sections, with handy pockets for storing pictures torn from magazines, fabric swatches or even paint charts. The first Work Book I created (published in 2013) had hints and tips on how you may develop your creative side, but this new one is more of a practical guide to working with the different key styles from my book Room Recipes for Style and Colour. In some sections, we’ve combined different but complementary looks; Bohemian and Floral Vintage or Modern Retro with Warehouse, with suggestions on how to make them work together and plenty of beautiful colour photographs in each section to inspire you. Room Recipes had step-by-step guides and plenty of how-tos – with the Chalk Paint® Workbook it’s over to you. 

I’m never without a workbook to jot down ideas, sketch out designs that have caught my eye or try for myself colour combinations that have inspired me. I’ve been using them for my designs since art school, but even as a child I loved filling a scrap book with bits and pieces that I thought were pretty or interesting and wanted to keep with me. Much as I love Pinterest (and I do love Pinterest!), nothing replaces having something in my bag, or by my bedside table so that I can actually draw out designs, or – importantly – use my paints to see how the colours will work (colours can get subtley distorted on the internet, and even in print).

But! I don’t want to be prescriptive – no-one will be marking you on this. Don’t get caught up in thinking you can’t draw, or worry that your ideas may not be good enough, just put them on the page, play around with them and see what you come up with. I’ve added plenty of tips and some of my own doodles on each page, to guide you through. Think of the book as a place where you can explore your ideas and let your imagination run riot. You may have a very fixed idea of what you want to do when you start a project, but I often find it best not to be too rigid with myself. I’ll have something in mind, but once I get started I can find myself changing direction – using a different colour, adding some stencilling.

Remember – it’s your book, I’m just there offering some advice! Please let me know how you end up using it.

Yours, Annie

*Annie Sloan's Chalk Paint® Workbook is published by CICO and available in selected book stores as well as through Annie Sloan Stockists around the world.