Jelena Pticek's Striped Chest of Drawers

    

Today I'm sharing the final project from Jelena Pticek, my brilliant Painter in Residence from Toronto, Canada. For this project, Jelena used my paint, Chalk Paint® to give a chest of drawers a modern look with horizontal stripes of colour.

Following the simple lines of the chest of drawers, Jelena used a palette of Graphite, Olive, Duck Egg Blue, French Linen and Antoinette to paint different widths of stripes around the piece. The French Linen and Graphite act as neutrals, keeping the colours balanced and working together.

Jelena applied my Clear Soft Wax, then lightly distressed the moulding on the top drawer. She then sealed the piece with a final coat of Wax.

I hope you've all enjoyed Jelena's worannk as much as I have and have been inspired to add some pattern to your furniture with Chalk Paint®?

Yours, Annie

Follow Jelena on Instagram, Facebook, and her blog: poppyseedliving.blogspot.co.uk/

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

Jelena Pticek's geometric sideboard

For her second Painters in Residence project, Jelena Pticek transformed an old, heavy-looking piece of furniture in to a wonderfully modern piece – using my paint, Chalk Paint®, and a handmade cardboard template.

Jelena applied French Linen – a cool neutral, khaki grey from the Chalk Paint® palette – using one of my Flat Brushes to create a smooth, neutral background that works beautifully with bright, rich colours.

She created her template and began to play around with the size to make certain it worked with the scale of the furniture. Using the template Jelena created the layout of the triangles – outlining each triangle with masking tape.

The new handles that Jelena had sourced for the sideboard inspired the colour palette for the geometric design. Using a palette of: Barcelona Orange, Duck Egg Blue, Antoinette and Scandinavian Pink she painted inside the marked-out triangles – making sure the four colours were spread out evenly across the sideboard.  

To keep things fun inside the cabinet, Jelena painted with Scandinavian Pink. She then finished the piece by removing the masking tape (once the paint was completely dry) and applying my Clear Soft Wax to make the piece really hard-wearing.

 

Yours, Annie

Follow Jelena on Instagram, Facebook, and their website:http://www.poppyseedcreativeliving.com/

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

Agnieszka Krawcyzk's Pretty Pastel Shelves

Today I'm sharing the final project from my wonderful Painter in Residence, Agnieszka Krawczyk. For this project, Agnieszka chose soft, pastel colours from the Chalk Paint® palette to create a delicate and romantic, vintage look.

She began by using one of my Pure Bristle Brushes to paint the whole piece in Paris Grey, and once this was dry, she applied a layer of French Linen. Agnieszka removed areas of paint using sandpaper and a scraper, revealing the paint and wood below. 

To create contrast and depth, Agnieszka left the inside of the piece predominantly in French Linen, but continued to work on the exterior surface – applying a coat of Old White, distressing again with sandpaper, and finishing with a top layer of Antoinette. Agnieszka chipped and sanded in to the edges and corners of the piece even further, revealing the built up layers of paint. She completed the piece with a coat of Clear Soft Wax and a dash of Dark Soft Wax to bring out the texture. The result is a truly vintage look.

I hope you've all enjoyed Agnieszka's work as much as I have and have been inspired to get your sandpaper and scrapers out... and start distressing!

Yours, Annie

Follow Agnieszka on Instagram, Facebook, and her website: www.beforeandafterblog.pl 

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

Agnieszka Krawczyk's Old Violet Side Table

I fell in love with Agnieszka's work after seeing it online – her technique and recognisable style are inspiring. I admire the way she experiments with my paint, Chalk Paint®, and explores the art of decorative painting. 

For her third Painters in Residence project Agnieszka applied Chalk Paint® decorative paint in a whole range of colours – Old Violet, Louis Blue, Henrietta, Emile, Paloma, Duck Egg Blue, French Linen, Original and Old White. She applied the paint thickly to create texture. Along the way she used scrapers, sand paper, a putty knife and woodworking tools to scrape, sand and chip away at the layers of paint – creating beautiful character and revealing areas of colour. This technique results in a piece that looks like naturally worn paint work – aged and distressed over time. 

Agnieszka finished the piece in my Soft Clear Wax – this protects the surface and adds a little depth to the colour.

Have you been inspired by Agnieszka's work to create your own heavily distressed piece?

Yours, Annie

Follow this blog for exclusive pictures from Agnieszka's residency and follow her on Instagram, Facebook, and her website: www.beforeandafterblog.pl 

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

I'm Missing France

We haven't been to France for a while so I started thinking about the houses and the colours.  So much so that tonight we are off to France to our house in Normandy. We'll probably get frostbite - there is no heating in the house except a big log fire, some 'slow to have effect' electric heaters and hot water bottles.  It'll take ages to warm the house and then well be coming home. 

But the colours will be good 

and the patinas That'll keep me warm...

Positive colour but so beautifully toned it doesn't look loud or shouty.  
This is in the north of France on the Normandy coast - in historic and ancient Honfleur - it was under English rule in the 14th century, it's  where French settlers left to for Quebec in 1608, and many of the Impressionists lived and worked in the area 

 

Coco with some Old White might do it or even some Paloma in it ? 

Greek Blue and some Old White or maybe some Louis Blue 

Of course the shape of the door is beautiful and the lamp post looks like Louis Blue. The top of the widow has a very pale Paloma look about it - interesting combinations I think. 

Country Grey 

French Linen

Old White door and dirtied and slightly whitened Greek Blue

Old Ochre and make the green with maybe Florence and French Linen 

This is the town of Eymet in Aquitaine and one of the old Bastide towns - meaning they are medieval fortified villages. They are little changed and quite magical.  This one is one of the most touristy.  I was there to run a workshop for a stockist of mine. 

Provence - the shutters are this colour 

The shutter catch on a house in Bergerac although they are seen all over France. 

Olive or Chateau Grey mix with Provence

                                      à bientôt, Annie !

                                  ( see you soon) 

PS . Have a look at our list of stockist in France - distributed by Claire in Brittany.  We have a new one in Cherbourg.... yippee! 

 http://anniesloan.com/acatalog/Ireland_and_Europe.html#France

  Cuba Colour 

 +

Provence + Greek Blue + Old White 

Barcelona Orange

Scandinavian Pink with some Emperors Silk

French Linen

Graphite 

The colour of the car with the yellow and deep red in the background

Primer Red 

English Yellow

The car has a top of Aubusson Blue

For the main part with the car I'd make a greenish grey with Paris Grey mix with some Chateau Grey. The chrome lines are terrific too - maybe with some aluminium leaf. 

Cream 

Old Violet

 +

Greek Blue with Old White

 Streets in Havana are full of colour and beautiful architecture and all unspoilt by absolutely NO advertising, road markings and all the usual things that spoil streets in the rest of the world.
So refreshing and inspiring.

David Hicks 

one of my favourite interior decorators - 

making pink  & yellow work 

When I did my book 'Colour in Decoration' in 1988 I visited a lot of houses for photography.  One of the houses was David Hick's house in Oxfordshire and I was lucky enough to meet him there. He showed me the house and talked to me about how he had achieved the looks.

The drawing room, above was a huge shock! Here was a very adult, rather proper English gentleman, married to a great granddaughter of Queen Victoria .....with an outrageous pink and yellow room. 
It was wonderful and made me realise that colours have associations but that does not mean that they can't used in less obvious ways. 

Antoinette

Cream
 
French Linen
 There was lots of white in the room including white painted  French furniture, creamy white china dressed with pink curtains and his trademark geometric carpet  in a colour not unlike my French Linen. 
It all worked because of the very grounding French Linen colours stopping it looking like a posh nursery.   
Of course the fabulous 18th century paintings were helpful too!