The Annie Sloan Fragrance Collection

I am unrepentant about the festive focus this blog has taken in the past few weeks! I love, love, love this season, and all its associated indulgence and frippery. My 12 Crafts of Christmas Campaign is – I hope! – inspiring you to make and create some wonderful adornments for your home, or even some really personal Christmas gifts.

And, on the subject of gifts, I thought this would be a good week - with 8 days to go until The Big Day - to talk about my Home Fragrance Collection: six delicious scents for your home, inspired by some of my very favourite places in France. Do forgive the plug, but they make such beautiful gifts for anyone, whether they are familiar with my products or not. Or use them to fill your own homes with fragrance - from the subtle aroma gently dispensed by my Reed Diffusers, to gorgeous scented candlelight flickering as guests arrive - always so welcoming!

My Fragrance collection was launched back in 2014 and I see it very much as a complement to my other products – accessories, even! I’ve spoken before about the inspiration behind each scent in the range: the lush green grassy notes in Antibes; timeless, leather-bound, woody Aubusson; rich, dry, slightly citrusy yet vanilla-sweet Burgundy; Provence – synonymous with sun-soaked lavender fields and balanced here with the spicy tones of amber and ginger; elegant Versailles with its soft, sophisticated heart of honeysuckle and jasmine; and, of course, Paris itself – translated by me into a luscious Damask rose-heavy bouquet, tempered with soft, powdery iris and a hint of sharp geranium. Each transports me to a different mood, a time, a place. Of course, each can be matched to a colour in the Chalk Paint® range but when you use them in your home, you’ll see they’re so much more than that – scent is so evocative, it is the silent scene setter and the finishing touch to any home!

I also want to say that it was really, really important to me when I created the range that the ingredients used should be organic - that was a no-brainer. The whole range was produced in England, and all materials used traceable to source. I make no claims to being a parfumeur – a venerable profession – but I really have worked on every aspect of this Collection – even down to my own personal take on toile de jouy, the print used to decorate the boxes.

Yours, Annie

Beau Ford's Geometric Sideboard

Painter in Residence, Beau Ford, used vibrant colours from the Chalk Paint® palette to create a fun and contemporary one-of-a-kind piece.

Beau chose a great colour palette of Burgundy, Arles, Provence and Emperor's Silk and used a very simple technique to transform a dull sideboard in to an eye-catching piece of art.

To begin the transformation Beau created areas of colour, somewhat like a camouflage pattern, using Arles, Provence and Emperor's Silk. Once this first coat of paint was throughly dry Beau used square stickers to mask off sections that she would later peel off to reveal the first coat of paint – that works together to create a geometric pattern. Beau painted over the top of the stickers and the drawer fronts in Burgundy, and continued to paint the top and sides to match. Once the paint had dried Beau gently removed the stickers to reveal the squares of Provence, Arles and Emperor's Silk.

To finish the piece she used Arles to highlight the legs and drawer handles, and gave the piece a coat of my Clear Soft Wax to protect the surface.

What do you think of this technique? Have you done anything similar?

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.

Bonjour Burgundy!

 

In between everything else that’s been happening just now – Ireland tour, South Africa tour, #AnnieSloanLate, not mention the Painters in Residence which I’ve been showcasing on the blog too – I could do with a large red. Well, I’ve got one!

Please say “santé” to my colour, Burgundy. For those who haven’t seen it before, it’s a very rich red – think cranberries and plums – and conjures up classic Victorian interiors and boho boudoirs. But it can also be quite lively: with some help from Old White it morphs into a delicious, raspberry-like pink to add something of an ‘oomph’ to a room.

I’m getting madder

My inspirations include the pigment called Alizarin Crimson,
 a synthetic product made by a man called William Perkin. He was an English dye chemist and he derived it from coal tar. But he was also pipped at the post by one day in filing his patent (which went to two German chemists, Karls Grabe and Lieberman… would you believe?)

The Liebermans were searching for a synthetic way to create the strong red pigment with a bluish tone that comes naturally from the dye derived from Madder plant roots. Madder was found in Tutankhamen’s tomb amongst other places, and is a dye often seen in Asia and hence in Turkish carpets. So Burgundy is ideal for creating that exotic Turkish boudoir feel.

Another source of inspiration for Burgundy is the purplish blue-red that became available in the 1860. The English called it 'magenta', after the Battle of Magenta in 1859, a narrow French victory over Austria in the struggle for Italian independence – which is a fascinating fact in itself.

I was drawn to the name and colour because of its classical French Napoleonic connections and I love Burgundy as representing that refined French claret-colour which I suggest you could put on, say, a fabulous chest of drawers, maybe on its own, or with a little clear wax or even some dark wax. It adds a glorious gravitas and also looks great with gold leaf. As a regal colour Burgundy also pairs extremely well with Château Grey.

Bubblegum pink

As a bluey- not orangey-red, you might not associate Burgundy as a ‘fun’ colour, but wait till you try adding Old White to it: then it becomes right up-to-date bright bubblegum pink. Already a lot of people are adding white to it and making  these extraordinarily vivacious pinks, just like Lady Penelope and Thunderbirds.

A tripartite colour combination of Burgundy, Provence and Arles (all complementary on the colour wheel) makes an amazing mix for a room. For example you might like to try an Arles-painted wall combined with a Burgundy piece, say a chest of drawers, with some added Provence in the room in some other way, perhaps inside the drawers?

Yours, Annie

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.