Maison et Objet Paris

Last week I was in Paris for Maison et Objet 2016.  It is *the* big international trade show for interior design, with exhibitors – and visitors – from all over the world.  It’s so exciting, I go once a year to see for myself all the new trends.  Some of the stands are just enormous – I worked out that one was easily twice the size of my house! Often it’s where I’ll find new things for my shop here in Oxford, but this year I had my own stand there, and had a wonderful time meeting with stockists and potential new stockists from across the globe – Hungary to Japan!   (Images below- left: Shiro and Kimie Ito, my distributors in Japan, with Monika Gawinecka - my distributor in Poland. Middle: the Chalk Paint colour wheel. Right: My Spanish distributor, Maria, doing a short demo on the stand.)

I made time to take in what else was going on – I’m so frustrated but, because it is strictly trade only, I’m not allowed to share any of the pictures I took of the other stands with you.  However, I just had to sketch out some of the amazing ways in which people are using colour.  I was incredibly inspired, and – I hope! – you will be, too.

For the past few years, the big story has been white with grey.  I love this pared down look, but somehow it just doesn’t excite me in the way that bold use of colour does, so I’m thrilled to say that this year colour is big and strong!  There were some really powerful statements: red walls, red furniture, strong splashes of bright green and yellows…yellow everywhere!  And, importantly, this wasn’t just in reference to one particular style (e.g. mid-century Modern) but across the range.  Palatial grandeur, warehouse, bohemian (of course!) all infused with the colours I know so well from the Chalk Paint® palette (Emperor’s Silk, Burgundy, Antibes Green, Greek Blue, English Yellow to name but a few).  Barcelona Orange and English Yellow worked particularly well in warehouse settings, especially when paired with Paris Grey, French Linen, Versailles…

I’ve been struggling to come up with a way of describing the colours used, and can only come up with ‘strong florals’ – these aren’t pastels, but instead the strong red of tulips, vivid yellow like daffodils, marigold orange and beautiful cornflower blues.  And in combinations which were striking and somehow exotic.  Here’s a sketch based on a stand I saw which put together Graphite with Emperor's Silk, Antibes Green, Barcelona Orange and English Yellow.

  

Despite this and although colours were generally more dramatic, they were also used to create some more gentle looks.  The ubiquity of white and grey has been refreshed by using colour to replace white - it is now grey with orange, or blues, or yellow.  I saw a fabulous room set made up of soft greys – so relaxing – but with one vibrant orange chair – I love it!! For this look I've used Paris Grey and Barcelona Orange from the Chalk Paint® palette. (See image above.) 

I love seeing pictures of your bold colour statement pieces, keep sharing them with me using #AnnieSloan on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter! Use @anniesloanhome to tag me too!

Yours, Annie

Abigail & Ryan Bell's Floral Coral Chest of Drawers

For their second project as Painters in Residence, Abigail and Ryan Bell (of Abigail*Ryan) experimented with mixing my colours to create this bright – almost neon – coral pink.

Abigail and Ryan had a very specific colour in mind for this little chest of drawers – something retro and vibrant to match the clean lines of the piece. To find the colour that sang for them, they began mixing colours from the Chalk Paint® palette; Scandinavian Pink, Emperor's Silk, Barcelona Orange, a little English Yellow and Pure... and voilà! (Mixing colour with Pure as opposed to Old White will create a very clean, bright colour. Mixing colour with Old White creates a softer hue.)

As Abigail and Ryan were looking for a smooth, modern finish, they used my Flat Brush to apply the paint. The pair applied my Soft Clear Wax to protect and finish the piece, and then styled it with a vibrant floral arrangement bursting from the drawers. The perfect stand-out Spring piece.

Have you ever used Chalk Paint® to create a decorative display for your home or garden?

Yours, Annie

Follow this blog for exclusive pictures from Abigail and Ryan's residency and follow them on Instagram, Facebook, and her website: www.abigailryan.com

And remember to follow #PaintersInResidence on Instagram and Facebook, as well as my Painters in Residence board on Pinterest.

Janice Issitt's Moroccan-inspired bedroom

 

Today, I am sharing the last project from Janice Issitt's three months as one of my Painters in Residence. Her Moroccan-inspired, bohemian bedroom sings with colour – and has all been achieved with my Chalk Paint® palette.

The way Janice works reminds me of the way the Bloomsbury set painted Charleston Farmhouse – no surface is left unpainted. Walls, floors, furniture and ornaments are all constantly being painted, re-painted, re-worked and re-imagined. Janice works from her home – the various rooms in her house are her work studios and are therefore in a constant state of flux, much like my own!

Here, Janice has used Provence as a backdrop, and has stencilled a mandala shape onto the wall using Napoleonic Blue. She painted the bed in Barcelona Orange with a feather design in Florence. On the tiles on the floor, she used Provence, Napoleonic Blue, Old White and Arles. The Moroccan-style side table features Henrietta, Provence, Napoleonic Blue and English Yellow, and the screen is Old Violet, Barcelona Orange, Emperor's Silk and English Yellow. The furniture has been finished in my Soft Clear Wax, and the floor has been sealed using my matt Lacquer.

Next week, I will share the last project from Beau Ford residency, and following this I will be announcing my next set of fabulous Painters in Residence. I can't wait!

Yours, Annie

Follow Janice's on Instagram, Facebook, and her blog: janiceissittlifestyle.blogspot.com

And remember to follow #PaintersInResidence on Instagram and Facebook, as well as my Painters in Residence board on Pinterest.

Beau Ford's Work Hard, Be Kind Desk

For her third Painters in Residence project, Beau Ford gave this sad and forgotten school desk a complete make-over using my paint, Chalk Paint®.


After replacing the top and giving the whole desk a quick clean, Beau set to work on the paintwork. First, she painted the base of the desk in English Yellow, then applying Paris Grey as an accent on the feet.

She painted the top of the table in a chevron pattern, using a ruler as a rough guide. She worked with a range of colours to make a bright statement: Barcelona Orange, Scandinavian Pink, English Yellow, Provence, Greek Blue and Napoleonic Blue.

When you lift the lid of the desk you find a charming surprise – the words "Work Hard, Be Kind written in lovely, freehand type.

Beau used Clear Wax and Dark Wax to finish the piece and give the overall piece an aged look.

What do you think? Have you used Chalk Paint® to create a bright and bold pattern on your furniture?

Yours, Annie

Follow this blog for exclusive pics from Beau's residency and follow her on Instagram, Facebook, and her blog: http://drip-designsfurniture.blogspot.com.au

And remember to follow #PaintersInResidence on Instagram and Facebook, as well as my Painters in Residence board on Pinterest.

Janice Issitt's Boho Door

Janice found this dark wooden, carved, Victorian door in a charity shop and had to have it! She has taken the door and repurposed it using lots of bright colours from the Chalk Paint® palette to make a bold Bohemian statement.

Janice told me that "a lot of things went in to the alchemy" when it came to mixing the colours for this piece. She loves to experiment with colour mixing and stores any left-over mixes in pots, and will revisit these when beginning a project – adding other colours in to them to make the right tone for the next project.

For this piece Florence and Antibes have been mixed in different amounts to create different tones of green. Old White has been added to some parts and English Yellow to others. Napoleonic Blue and Emperor's Silk were mixed to make the deep purple panels, and a touch of Emperor's Silk has been added to Barcelona Orange to deepen it.

The panelled wall surrounding the door has been painted in Napoleonic Blue and stencils have been added in its complimentary colour, Barcelona Orange!

What do you think? Have you ever used Chalk Paint® to create a Bohemian look?

Yours, Annie

Follow this blog for exclusive pics from Janice's residency and follow her on Instagram, Facebook, and her blog: janiceissittlifestyle.blogspot.com

And remember to follow #PaintersInResidence on Instagram and Facebook, as well as my Painters in Residence board on Pinterest.

Beau Ford's Spotted Wardrobe

For Beau's second project as Painter in Residence she took a characterless old wooden wardrobe and transformed it in to a fun, colourful statement piece, using my paint. Chalk Paint® is the perfect way to add colour to a child's bedroom (or an adult's!)

The outside of the wardrobe has been painted in a simple mix of Barcelona Orange and Pure, creating a peachy-orange colour. I love the way Beau picked its complimentary colour, Provence, to paint the inside of the wardrobe. She stamped the white spots on to the surface, starting at the bottom of the wardrobe and radiating out towards the top. She then finished the project with Annie Sloan Clear Soft Wax to protect the surface.

You can easily replicate this finish at home by making your own stamps. And you don't need any high tech equipment – it's easy to make your own stamps out of potatoes, cardboard or wine corks.

Have you ever attempted a similar finish with Chalk Paint®?

Yours, Annie

Remember to follow #PaintersInResidence on Instagram and Facebook, as well as my Painters in Residence board on Pinterest.

Janice Issitt's Chinese Inspired Wall Art

The second project from Painter in Residence, Janice Issitt, is this Chinese-inspired wall art, painted in my paint, Chalk Paint®.

This is actually one of the last projects that Janice completed during her time as a Painter in Residence. Janice had lots of leftover paint that she had mixed up for previous projects and decided to "chuck it at the walls". Here you can see Provence, Greek Blue, and Old White – all thrown at the walls and rolled out wet.

Janice tells me that she likes something handmade to look hand made, and that she doesn't like perfection. Therefore, why should a wall look completely flat and even? Something I totally agree with!

The stencilled images are of Chinese cherry blossoms, flowers and birds. The branches and flowers are painted in Old White, Primer Red, Barcelona Orange and Emperor's Silk. The leaves are Antibes, and the birds are Napoleonic Blue.

Janice has loved stencilling ever since the days of Jocasta Innes. Every time she has a new job she thinks about how she can incorporate a stencil.

To finish this project, Janice rescued an old side table painting it in Emperor's Silk to echo the Chinese look of the stencilled wall.

The inside of the cupboard is painted in Florence and the edge has been gilded using Annie Sloan Gold Size and Brass Leaf. The whole cupboard has been finished with Annie Sloan Soft Clear Wax.

So what do you think? Have you stencilled with Chalk Paint® before?

Yours, Annie

Follow this blog for exclusive pics from Janice's residency and follow her on Instagram, Facebook, and her blog:janiceissittlifestyle.blogspot.com

And remember to follow #PaintersInResidence on Instagram and Facebook, as well as my Painters in Residence board on Pinterest.

True Blue

It’s great to have Napoleonic Blue back in my Chalk Paint® colour range here in Europe; and for all my customers around the world who've been familiar with it for years, here’s a timely reminder of just what a deep, rich and warm blue it really is.

My inspiration isn’t the diminutive Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte himself, but the classic French Empire style he put his emperor’s seal to. It’s like saying ‘Victorian’ to describe an era rather than Queen Victoria herself, and to that extent Napoleonic Blue represents a ‘regimented’ style: it’s dark, it’s rich, it’s a bit ‘masculine’, I suppose. The French Empire style under Napoleon borrowed wholesale from classical Greece and Rome in a grand style with military motifs and masculine colours (and don’t forget Napoleon had conquered Egypt, which was yet another classical influence with its vibrant azure blues, rich greens, red ochre and acid yellows).

Pigments – something borrowed, something blue

Some of my stockists have likened Napoleonic Blue to the colour of freshly picked blueberries, and even the perfect blue for creating the Union Jack flag (though I’m not sure what the French would think of this!). I see it as a homage to ‘ultramarine blue’, which was extracted from the semi-precious stone lapis lazuli – the incredibly bright blue pigment that was reputedly more expensive than gold in medieval times and the forerunner of all artists’ blues. It was used by some Medieval and Renaissance artists strictly to paint Mary and Jesus’ robes.

The history of colour in Art (which I studied) is a bit of a detective story and is fascinating in itself – but it boils down to the discovery of pigments. These are very fine powders sourced from the earth, from plants (and from dyes and synthetic materials). They’re a bit like spices with varying strengths and properties – some are opaque, some are like grains, some mix with oil, while others work better with water. There are actually no blue pigments you can find straight from the earth, so it’s always been a complicated and expensive process to get that 'true' blue (as with lapis lazuli).

Something versatile, something new

The great thing about Napoleonic Blue is that because it’s so rich and warm and strong and pure, I can see it being used in so many different ways. As a 'regal' stand alone, or with whites for example as you get all these pale warm blues. If you add dark wax it makes it silkier, deeper and even more gorgeous. Here are some neat ideas (below) found online:

The colour is absolutely tailor-made for neoclassical interiors but also works very well with the Swedish style. It’s a winning combination (well, it was for Napoleon till he met his Waterloo).

And although it refers back to the past it also has a more modern feel 1960’s pop art feel to it too – that bright blue used with orange or the bright-blue-with-bright-green mix so it looks fantastic with or over Barcelona Orange (which also gives it a truer navy blue) as well as with Antibes Green (see below).

Just looking at my Chalk Paint® colour card, you can see the range of blues goes from violet and lavender blues to grey blues, navy blues and the greenish hues of turquoise. Aubusson Blue for example, is from Prussian Blue, a cold, greeny blue, whereas Napoleonic Blue is a warm blue with the faintest hint of red (so it makes for a great purple – a favourite colour of Napoleon’s).

To get a warm blue you need an undertone of red and more red will give you a good purple especially with a bit of white added. When combined with Old White or Paris Grey, Napoleonic Blue can be used to create a really mellow farmhouse grey blue. When you start mixing my blues with other hues in the colour wheel, you’ll really notice just how vast the blue colour range is.

I created my paint, Chalk Paint®, from the idea of the artist using a palette to mix colours rather than robotically selecting from a bewildering kaleidoscopic chart – so go on, use Napoleonic Blue and be an artist!

Yours, Annie

P.S. I would like to thank my stockists and others for some of the ideas shown here via Pinterest and blogs which I acknowledge below. Apologies if I have omitted anyone! Search #Napoleonic on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for more inspiration.

Finding Silver Pennies for the ‘grain sack dresser’

www.findingsilverpennies.com/2013/06/grain-sack-dresser-before-after.html

Bad Groupie for the Napoleonic Blue Piano
http://bad-groupie.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/blue-painted-piano.html?m=1

Reloved Rubbish for the Union Jack chair
http://relovedrubbish.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/chalk-painted-union-jack-chair-on-wheels.html

Suite Pieces for the 2-colour distressed wood
http://suitepieces.com/2-color-distress-with-chalk-paint/

Kelly at TheLily Pad Cottage, for the boy’s bed
http://www.thelilypadcottage.com/2013/08/annie-sloan-chalk-painted-bed.html

Tea and Roses
www.pinterest.com/deborahwestfarm/

The eye-catchy colours and lines of Paul Klee (2)

As promised here is another piece inspired by that clever colourist whose Tate Modern, London, retrospective ‘Making Visible’ I visited last year (it runs till 9th March 2014).

I love Paul Klee’s explorative understanding of colour and on seeing Greeting and Separation in the Evening (above) I just thought “wouldn’t these translate into a lovely chest of drawers?” 

Greetings from Berlin

These quite tiny watercolour studies (both done in 1922 and for his students) explore how complementary colours work together (Klee was a great teacher at the Bauhaus).

I was really struck by Greeting (above) in which Klee paints shutter-like bands of gradated colour across a page while differently coloured arrows flow up and down to meet (and greet?). As an exercise in using complementary colours, what I found interesting was the way in which he starts with orange at the bottom and ends with gluey-grey at the top. In between there is no colour, just white. 

I tried the same approach in my studio using Barcelona Orange and Greek Blue from the Chalk Paint® range. I mixed the two complementary colours together, creating a similar effect to Klee's painting but with a dark greyish colour in the centre drawer. I was fortunate to find a chest which has no gaps in the drawers, which really helped create the effect of stripes of colour.

Get it on your Chest

1. I started on the bottom drawer with Chalk Paint® in Greek Blue, and then I mixed some Barcelona Orange until I thought “that’s a nice colour” and painted it on.

2. On the next shelf up I added a little bit more Barcelona Orange, mixed it in again until I thought “yes, that’s another nice colour’.

3. I continued upwards, drawer by drawer, each time adding a bit more Barcelona Orange to make quite gradual colour gradations (on drawers 1-4).

4. I then made a big jump to drawers 5 and 6 as I wanted to end up with pure Barcelona Orange.

I really like the overall effect, even if the gradations are a bit “jumpy” at the top. Actually that might be its charm because it is not so studied or predictably “colour coded”. (Otherwise, I would have needed a massively tall piece of furniture!). And all I needed was just two pots of paint!

The modernist furniture piece was a great canvas to work on too: I painted a graphite line around it and the little brass handles are a lovely touch – a bit like a 1950’s military coat (think Sgt. Pepper's). The overall effect is very pleasing and you see the magic of complementary colours at work!

Hope you think so too.

Yours, Annie