International Women's Day 2020: interview with Anne Maij

Question 1)
Tell us a bit about yourself – what is your name and your business? 

My name is Anne Maij, and together with my husband Menno I am the owner of Auberge de Rêves (translated to English this means Inn of Dreams). We design and create handmade furniture for our own label; we have a lovely small gift & interior shop in Leerdam (in the centre of the Netherlands); and we are extremely proud Annie Sloan Stockists (and have been for over 5 and a half years now).

The real beginning of the Auberge was in summer 2007, when I was 36. We had a kind of pop-up business during the summer for which Menno made all sorts of garden furniture, and I painted them. Afterwards we went on a holiday for a week and that was that, but the next summer we started all over again. This is where it all began.

Question 2)
How did you come to create this business?

When the business was starting, I was also working as a nurse. Nursing was great, but it was very intensive, and I first discovered painting as something to do on the side to clear my head. Being creative was exactly what I needed. I remembered that I used to love all sorts of creative things when I was a child, but when I grew older I totally forgot about that part of myself. Then I discovered Annie Sloan Paint, and suddenly all my creativity came back, just like that. This has been my fulltime job for almost 5 years, so I am one of the lucky people who are able to earn a living with their hobby, and I still enjoy my work every day!

Question 3)
What inspirational people have you looked to throughout your career? 

I feel inspired by many women! For example Edith Piaf, Coco Chanel, Meryl Streep, but also painters like Charley Toorop and Else Berg, a Jewish painter who created the most beautiful paintings, and tragically died in Auschwitz in 1942 at the age of 65. My favourite of her paintings is Mystical Pond.

I also felt - and feel - very inspired by Annie Sloan herself! She is not only a very gifted artist, but also a great teacher and coach, an enormously inspiring businesswoman and a very kind and lovely person too. I’m especially inspired when I consider all she means to so many people (and especially to so many small businesswomen and customers) throughout the whole world who gained self-confidence just by working with her paint.

Question 4)
What was the single proudest moment you’ve had in business?

Well, I actually find it quite difficult to be really proud of what I am doing, because like a lot of a women I can be quite a perfectionist (which can sometimes be quite tiring). But if I need to pick one, it would be the moment I realised myself that I can really do this job, and that I am able to earn my own living by doing what I love the most.

Question 5)
What advice do you have for anyone starting out?

Just start! If you have a dream and a (kind of a) plan, don’t let other people or yourself stop you by all sorts of irrelevant objections. Just get on and do it. Over time you will grow, and find out what does and does not work for you. And most of all: enjoy the journey and stay true to yourself!

Question 6)
And finally, if you were a Chalk Paint colour, which would you be and why?

Although my favourite colours are Aubusson Blue, Olive and Duck Egg Blue, I think I have to choose Primer Red for myself. It’s a warm, earthly colour, but still a red tone, which is also a fiery colour.

I can be very sensible and ‘down-to-earth’ and people describe me often as empathetic, but inside there is always a fire burning too, which can flare up in case of injustice, dishonesty or any kind of abuse to people, animals or nature. But luckily most of the time the practical ‘down-to-earth’-part is in charge, what is best for me and my environment 😉 .

Alex Russell Flint's Bedroom

In December, I shared Alex Russell Flint's Chalk Paint® mural with you. Now I can show you a bit more from this, his final Painter in Residence project. Working around the rest of the room with Chalk Paint®, Alex transformed his bedroom (once part of an old schoolhouse) into a sumptuous haven.

Artist Alex brings a romantic and rustic tinge to his French elegance – he juxtaposes a finely panelled door with a distressed and weathered Aubusson washed wall. He has painted the bedroom door in Olive, picking out lines of the panel frames using a complementary colour – Primer Red. He then also painted the antique wardrobe and ladder in Primer Red. The floor is painted in Paris Grey.

I love the way he has carefully composed his collection of found objects and paintings (all in frames painted in Chalk Paint®). Everything has been very well spaced to avoid any sense of overcrowding or cluttering.

This is the final project from Alex's Residency. I hope you've found his work as inspiring as I have. I still have three more projects to share from my first set of Residents: Beau Ford and Janice Issitt. And then I will be able to introduce you to my next set of Painters in Residence. Watch this space!

Yours, Annie

Follow Alex on Instagram, Facebook, and his website:http://www.alexrussellflint.com

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

Colour of the year?

Pantone recently announced that ‘Marsala’ was its ‘Colour of the Year’ – an interesting gambit on many levels, I thought. And certainly it’s caused quite a media stir and has been commented upon up by several Annie Sloan Stockists, too.

The graphic designer’s friend

What’s it all about? Back in my college days studying Art, I never really came into contact with Pantone colours – it was much more a graphic design thingy and designers talked about it all the time as it was a way of specifying and matching colour. It was explained to me by a graphic designer as a means to clarify conversations such as “I would like it in red”, “What shade of red?”, “Somewhere between tomato and pillar box”. Pantone gets its precisely. Hence it’s not just Marsala but Marsala 18-1438.

Marsala

Pantone say it's ‘a naturally robust and earthy wine red’ and I quite like it personally. In fact, Marsala reminds me of a blend of three of my colours: Burgundy and Primer Red, with a dash of Old White Chalk Paint®.

Kicking off the colour conversation

And ‘Colour of the Year’? Pantone have been promoting a centrefold colour since 2000, I believe, and I think it’s a really interesting idea. If it raises the profile of colour in our lives that can only be a good thing. It makes people focus on colour and that’s exciting – we all need it. 

Having said that, I don’t think we should take it too seriously. It’s for colour forecasters – especially in fashion (clothes and handbags), beauty (we’ll see it in lipsticks) and it kicks off a conversation in interiors, furnishings, design, and graphics, which is all good stuff. It’s all about the zeitgeist and the ‘Colour of the Year’ reflects that – perhaps Marsala is about the need to be more ‘grounded’ in what to many seems a time of freefall?

One colour fits all?

I have to say that the idea of trying to make one colour the colour for the whole world in all these areas seems a wee bit ambitious, and anyway your shop or style simply might not be able to include this or any ‘Colour of the Year’. What happens if you live by the sea and you’ve chosen lots of greys? I say, don’t feel obliged to up paintbrushes and start spreading the Marsala.

Yours, Annie

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.

Alex Russell Flint's Painterly Bathroom

The first project from Painter in Residence, Alex Russell Flint, is this gorgeous bathroom painted in my paint, Chalk Paint®.

Alex has updated his 19th century zinc bath tub using a mixture of Aubusson Blue, Antibes Green and Burgundy. He then finished the bath tub with Annie Sloan Clear Wax and a coat of Annie Sloan Dark Wax to deepen the intensity of the colour.

The lampshade in the room has also been painted with very diluted Chalk Paint® in Burgundy; the side table has been painted in Primer Red and then finished with Clear Wax. I feel the colours used really tie the gorgeous rich textures and tones of the room together. Alex's walls really set off the luscious reds in the room – to achieve a look like this you can use Duck Egg Blue and Clear Wax.

Have you used Chalk Paint® on a bath tub?

Yours, Annie

Follow this blog for exclusive pics from Alex's residency and follow him on Instagram, Facebook, and his website:http://www.alexrussellflint.com

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

Potato Prints

I love potato printing as a technique because anybody can cut shapes as I did on this cabinet (above). 

You don’t have to be able to draw, and I find that empowering – and isn’t that what my paint and products are all about? I’m much more interested in seeking people’s creativity especially those who feel or think they can’t draw – but in fact anyone can achieve a finish like this.

I printed this old cabinet a very long time ago – and it was old and shabby when I bought it in the mid 1990s! But I like the results: the top drawer has been worn away through constant family use and it’s been in each house we’ve owned for keeping gloves, keys, all sorts of things. So it has a sentimental value too.

Wonky work out

I did a rough concept of what I want to achieve but nothing exact – it’s all rather wonky but that’s its charm. I was aiming for a parallel design but something organic and fairly loose – not uniformly designed, and anyway that just won’t happen with this technique.

With potato (or carrot or cork, other good printing ‘tools’) you need to create some simple shapes– you can’t do anything very fussy because it ends up looking silly. These particular motifs turned into something African, tribal, aboriginal, it wasn’t intended – this effect is also partly to do with the colours I chose.

The small print

So here’s how I did it:

1. I painted the whole cabinet using Chalk Paint® in Primer Red and left it to dry.

2. The inside I painted using Chalk Paint® in Duck Egg Blue to add contrast.

3. Then I added a third Chalk Paint® colour - Aubusson Blue - over the cupboard and drawer surrounds and legs.

4. Next I painted Yellow Ochre (a colour no longer in the Chalk Paint® palette, but you could try Old Ochre here instead) on the drawer and insets.

5. I cut the potatoes in half with a kitchen knife (un-serrated) and got rid of the residual water by dabbing the exposed inside because a lot of water comes out.  

6. I then drew a shape on the exposed inside of the potato using a felt tip pen (below left).

7. Next I cut around the shape/outline using a knife to leave a relief (or raised area, below right).

8. I then put my potato halves on a tray of paint, dabbed some blobs of Chalk Paint® in Primer Red and transfer them – oomph – directly on to the cabinet surface.

9. Then I waxed lightly with my Clear Soft Wax.

10. And finally I rubbed back to give a more distressed feel.

This cabinet also featured in one of my earlier books How To Paint Furniture (1995) now out of print. Today the cabinet is still in use standing proud in our Oxford home after all these years – and with its original wax. 

If you would like to try your hand on another potato printing project, check out my more recent Quick and Easy Paint Transformations (CICO Books, 2010), the cover of which shows a side table polka dot potato print, and inside how to achieve this finish. 

Go on unleash the inner artist in you!

Yours, Annie

  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.