Shabby Chic; Volume III

shirlgirl2004

hermum wrote: »

Did you try watering it down a little? On the Cafe someone said that she found it watered down avoids the brush marks.

Actually the first coat was very watery because the OH opened the pot before I had shaken it. It did seem smoother but I wanted the coverage so used the next coat at its original thickness.

PinkKiwi

I found an advert on preloved for a white rocking chair which was free. My partner picked it up, we didn't have any picture so had no idea what it looked like and it was gorgeous! It had a lovely patterned panel in the middle, the paint had cracked to an eggshell effect in places so I didn't do anything to it. We had it for a while and I decided to put it on ebay as shabby chic and it sold for 30 pounds!

paintycait

Hi all - saw all the hits on my blog and followed it here ....if I can help answer questions shout - I have been using this paint professionally for some time and teaching and selling it for 2 years...I have been a painter and decorator for 25 years.
...there are a lot of stockists and in fact I answer questions on many other forums that are from people in USA as well as UK......IOW I am not trying to spam, just love the paint but it is not the only paint we use for professional projects. There are loads and loads sof blogs with info about different projects using it.

• Annie Sloan paint can be varnished.

• If the paint is thin you leave the lid off the can and allow it to thicken up overnight - it won't skin.

• If it is too thick, take out of the tin what you need and then thin it with a little water.

• It needs little preparation - it will adhere to many difficult to paint surfaces but it does need sealing with wax or varnish. Common sense should prevail though...if it is a superslick surface then a wee rub down is a good idea; if it is dirty then a good wash down with something like Flash (or sugarsoap) is a good thing. If it is flaky then remove the flaky bits and sand the edges. Most things that are in good condition need a wash and a scrub with a scratchy kitchen pad

• It can be made chic chic (like this project http://maisondecor8.blogspot.com/2011/04/my-secretary-and-chalk-paint.html) and shabby chic - the brush, the thickness of the paint, brush technique all play a part in the end result. If it does look brushy then it sands to baby's butt smooth with a sanding pad - you can sand before waxing or after. The former is the dusty way. I like distressed ...but you don't need to distress

Hope that is useful

monkeysallsayboo

Hi everyone,

Not sure this the right place but....i bought some chairs and a table from ebay a while ago. i have primed and painted the legs, which is one solid unit that comes away from the table top. the table top has an extending leaf in the middle. the whole look of the wood is grained, but quite dark. i can see under some scratches thats its just a light wood stained.

Any way... my point.... i have started sanding down the top ready to wax or oil (this is my first real project by the way) and the top of the table is going lighter, but when i sanded the edges it seems that its just mdf or something underneath. but there is wood grain on the top, so i am so confused!!

What should i do to rescue it? i wanted cream legs and wood top. What do you all think its actually made of/how is it made up? does any one have any ideas? or has this happened to anyone else?

thanks all
claire

annie-c

monkeysallsayboo wrote: »

Hi everyone,

Not sure this the right place but....i bought some chairs and a table from ebay a while ago. i have primed and painted the legs, which is one solid unit that comes away from the table top. the table top has an extending leaf in the middle. the whole look of the wood is grained, but quite dark. i can see under some scratches thats its just a light wood stained.

Any way... my point.... i have started sanding down the top ready to wax or oil (this is my first real project by the way) and the top of the table is going lighter, but when i sanded the edges it seems that its just mdf or something underneath. but there is wood grain on the top, so i am so confused!!

What should i do to rescue it? i wanted cream legs and wood top. What do you all think its actually made of/how is it made up? does any one have any ideas? or has this happened to anyone else?

thanks all
claire

It may be that the table is veneered, with thin wood strips glued on top of chipboard or MDF, to give the appearance of solid wood. This is quite typical of dark wood furniture, made with oak or mahogany veneer, at a time before cheaper softwoods like pine were in vogue.

I have experienced this as a problem when renovating pieces of secondhand oak furniture, including a nest of repro coffee tables and a bookcase. Even good quality, heavy stuff can turn out to be veneered - veneering is often used as a specialist design feature on expensive furniture, as well as a way to 'stretch' real wood on cheaper stuff. Annoyingly it is usually the top that is veneered (the bit that we now like to leave natural) while the legs and sides tend to be solid.

With my bookcase, I caved and just painted it all over and put it in a different room to the intended place. It just looks like a posh version of an IKEA Billy bookcase, sadly. With my 'oak' coffee tables, I discovered the tops were veneered over chipboard while using an electric sander on the smallest. I decided I would live with the small chipboard patch on that one and laboriously hand sanded the other two, managing not to break through the veneer. Once oiled they look fine, although "I" know the damage is there on the little one.

Without seeing your own table, it is hard to advise you. It may be that you could switch to gentler hand sanding to finish the top, and use stain or oil to disguise the sides? Otherwise, maybe cover the top instead?

I have a cheap IKEA birchwood table in the kitchen and as I decided I couldn't live with all the little black pock marks on it, I have covered the top with pretty oil cloth, stapled tightly all round. The legs are painted, and I have 'matching' stools that have painted legs and solid beech seats, which match with my beech worktops.

The good thing with oilcloth is that it is completely removable, as the staples only penetrate the underside, so you could cover it to buy you time until you get a better idea of what to do with the top, as you become more experienced.

annie-c

paintycait wrote: »

Hi all - saw all the hits on my blog and followed it here ....if I can help answer questions shout - I have been using this paint professionally for some time and teaching and selling it for 2 years...I have been a painter and decorator for 25 years.

• It needs little preparation - it will adhere to many difficult to paint surfaces but it does need sealing with wax or varnish. Common sense should prevail though...if it is a superslick surface then a wee rub down is a good idea; if it is dirty then a good wash down with something like Flash (or sugarsoap) is a good thing. If it is flaky then remove the flaky bits and sand the edges. Most things that are in good condition need a wash and a scrub with a scratchy kitchen pad

Hope that is useful

Welcome, and sorry if it came as a shock to get all the inquisitive website hits! :T

Just because I can't help banging on about my pet peeves (:rotfl:), while I really appreciate your post, and am not criticising you in any way, the thing that gets me about Annie Sloan's paint is that she bigs it up as the BEST!!!exclamation!!!! paint in the world, but
in the small print on her site, and on blogs that describe using it, there always seems to be a disclaimer about using 'common sense' in priming and preparing where necessary...

Well, yeah Annie Sloan, that's all well and good, but marketing claims should be accurate - either it's 'the best paint for furniture by far' and 'can be used on any surface' with 'no need to prime or prepare' [her words]... or it isn't and shouldn't be marketed as such.

It's great that you, paintycait, share with us tips on the extra prep needed, but I think Annie Sloan should lose the weasel words from her website because for the home decorator, specialist knowledge about priming and prep isn't a matter of 'common sense', it's specialist knowledge that really should be imparted on the paint tin, especially when the prices are as high as they are.

[/rant]

lucylema

Anyone know where I can find some lovely bottles for my bathroom bubble bath etc? I would like something pretty, not to fancy but not to plain either

Thanks x

annie-c

lucylema wrote: »

Anyone know where I can find some lovely bottles for my bathroom bubble bath etc? I would like something pretty, not to fancy but not to plain either

Thanks x

Boot sales or charity shops? Or for a few more £££ try TK Maxx or Homesense. I don't bother to decant liquids, but I like clear blown glass jars for makeup and bits and bobs and I tend to find these in the above places.

PinkTiger

lucylema wrote: »

Anyone know where I can find some lovely bottles for my bathroom bubble bath etc? I would like something pretty, not to fancy but not to plain either

Thanks x

I think bubblebaths look lovely in old decanters especially ones that are all different shapes & sizes grouped together. again, charity shops or car boots are probably the best/cheapest place to find them x

Lurleene

I have been in my local Laura Ashley today and they had loads of extra reductions. All ex-display furniture, blinds, curtains etc were heavily discounted.There were lots of discontinued fabrics too, reduced more than their ticket price. I bought some of the football fabric for DS's room and it went through at the till for £3 a metre. I expect this is nationwide.