Since my last post I have been hard at work on Audrey's make-over. For those of you who didn't read my Part One, Audrey is my new vintage hutch and buffet narrowly saved from a trip to the dump last week. Her transformation into storage for our new mudroom is well underway. Here are some highlights of phase two:
1. Shellac, to enhance adhesion of the chalk paint on really shiny surfaces and to stop bleed through (commonly seen with pieces that have a red stain and pieces from the '30s and '40s). Although the instructions on the can suggest applying it with a cloth, I followed the advice of my Annie Sloan Chalk Paint stockist (Nicole at The Painted Bench in Oakville) and used a chip brush. Shellac is very thin and runny, applies easily, and dries within minutes.
Shellac is a natural substance sourced from a secretion of an insect in Asia--helps it to stick to tree trunks! However, shellac has very strong vapours due to whatever they add to make it dry so quickly, so use in a well-ventilated area!
2. Paint, paint, paint! Two coats of Annie Sloan Old White. Really, 1.5 coats since I watered it down the second time to 50/50 with good old H20. The second coat was a lovely smooth finish and gave perfect coverage.
3. Chalk paint color washing technique with Coco. This was my first big project using a wash and I found it a bit intimidating. My first attempts were too light for the look I was going for, which meant I had to adjust both the consistency (50/50 water to start and finally 2/3 paint and 1/3 water) and drying time before wiping off while the project was underway. It all depends on the final look you want to achieve. A thinner paint mixture and shorter drying time will give you a very light wash. Thicker paint and longer drying time gives you a more opaque coverage which can be patchy. Especially for the rustic, worn and weathered look I was trying to achieve the thin mixture was not what I needed so using more paint to water and letting it sit a little longer before wiping certainly helped. Tip when wiping off the color wash: do not wipe in circles! Wipe the paint off the way you apply it, with the grain of the wood. All things considered I think my first attempt at a color wash on a project of this size turned out ok. I knew that the dark wax would change the appearance considerably so I wasn't overly worried. This shows the top and side of the hutch when I was applying the Coco wash:
4. Wax on, wax off. I let the paint dry overnight due to the humidity. Next morning I brushed on the clear wax. It was very hot that day in my garage/workshop, and the wax was really soft and easy to work with. Now I know that a lot of the bloggers are saying to wax lightly. However, I saw Annie Sloan on a video saying that she actually uses a fair bit of clear wax when she is going to apply dark wax. The key though, is to be sure you wipe off the excess. Most people get into trouble by applying a lot of clear wax and not wiping it off properly. Chalk paint is dry and porous. You brush the clear wax in, pushing it into the paint. Then you wipe off what hasn't absorbed into it.
5. Apply dark wax. If you are going to apply dark wax, you must do it while the clear wax is still wet. This is your safety net you see because if you get too much dark wax the clear wax allows you to take it off again, provided you are quick. If I can give you one important tip here it would be to work quickly and on very small sections at a time. For this project, I was meticulous about doing that. Here you see some photos of a leg before and after dark wax:
See how beautifully the dark wax has filled in all the crevices, the detail in the carving, and the worm holes? I used the dark wax to even out the colour where I felt the wash was too dark, and to give the whole piece an antique looking patina. Here you see me working on some of Audrey's skirt: after the Coco wash I applied the clear wax
Then dark wax
Where I felt I had gotten too much dark wax, I simply erased it by getting a small amount of clear wax on my cloth and wiping it away. Then I could reapply the dark wax the way I wanted it.
I finished the buffet in just over an hour but couldn't start working on the hutch as a terrible thunder storm came up. I had just enough time to close up the garage and run to the house before the down pour.
I will repeat all the steps on the hutch as soon as the weather clears. But Audrey will not be finished until she gets her "quiet riot"--painted inside in an unexpected and lively colour.
I will tell you about that in Part Three!
I hope this little tutorial has provided some helpful tips on color washing and applying dark wax.
Blessings,
The Duchess of NewLife
I know I'm not the only one who has had a fear of the dark. It is a fear that I acquired after a silly and quite avoidable mistake my second time working with Annie Sloan chalk paint.
Eager to get started using the wonderful Annie Sloan products, I merely skimmed the instructions and dove head first into that can of luscious rich dark wax. And within moments my excitement had turned to horror. Because I had failed to properly read the very clear and very simple instructions, I applied the dark wax to a painted project without first applying a coat of clear wax. Why, you might ask, is this a problem? Well, without the clear wax coating to act as a barrier the dark wax comes into direct contact with and permanently stains the paint.
Now, to be clear, this is not a problem if you want that effect. But if you only want the dark wax to create the illusion of a patina that is the result of aging, then not having the clear wax barrier is definitely something you will regret. (But only until you realize that for some reason I absolutely do not understand, you can paint right over the wax and start again--just be sure to let it dry first.)
So that's when I developed my fear of the dark and decided never to open that can again. But oh, how I admired the beautiful effect others achieved by applying dark wax. I drooled over the pics on other people's blogs for several days until I finally decided to face my fear and try once more.
It was my first big project, the 1960"s maple highboy that I recently posted about. (You can read about it in my post from 7/18/14 called I fell in love with the Purple Painted Lady.) I really wanted to get a little bit of rich patina on the turquoise blue top, but I was hesitant. So I went back to the wonderful Tricia at the Purple Painted Lady and watched and rewatched her video on applying dark wax. I also reread Annie Sloan's book 50 Quick and Easy Paint Transformations until I felt the courage slowly return.
I took a deep breath and opened that can. I kid you not, my palms were sweating, but with the image of Tricia confidently applying the dark wax over clear and quickly wiping it away, I went for it. Well, almost. At the last moment I grabbed a scoop of clear wax and added dark to it, making a less dark and more easily removed (just in case) wax.
I mixed the clear and dark waxes on a paper plate and loaded my waxing brush from there. If you don't use a waxing brush, I strongly recommend that you get one. This one is from Annie Sloan's line.
And it was lovely, but not quite as dark as I wanted. So, now feeling very brave, I applied a dollop of undiluted dark. Perrrfect!
So it was that when it came time to paint the matching bedside table, I had no hesitation at all about applying that rich dark wax, because I remembered the rule: always apply over a fresh coat of clear wax.
Here are before and after pics of that beside table. You can see that I did a very light sanding on this piece, but I do mean light--5 minutes max. I wanted to see if it made any difference to how the paint went on or adhered. The verdict: no discernible difference.
I chose to "reverse" the colors from how I did the highboy to avoid things looking like I was trying too hard to match it all up. Here is a reminder of how the highboy turned out, so I painted all but the interior front in the blue. There were multiple steps involved in achieving this colour and finish. You can read about them in the post mentioned above. Even so, the whole thing only took a couple of hours to do including drying time and clean up.
Here is the highboy. Same colours, just in reverse. On both I chose to buff only the blue paint. I allowed the white to remain matte. Even so, as you can see here, when light shines on the finish it is not chalky like before the wax goes on.
So now that these two pieces are done I will move on to working on a plaster bust that has been sitting in our en suite for years--another "i'll get around to it some day" project. Well, the day has come. I'll write about it in my next post.
Blessings,
The Duchess of NewLife
