Home Made Chalk Paint

We are still unable to buy Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Australia. I've been desperate to try it but not desperate enough to pay the huge shipping costs. I even started discussions with Annie herself on becoming an importer/distributor but have decided against that path.

So what does a die-hard DIYer do but make some myself!

I found several recipes online for gesso and chalk paint. Here are some links if you are interested in going down that path yourself:

Gesso - Earth Pigments

Wiki How Gesso

However in the end, I used a simpler recipe which was just mixing normal acrylic paint with powdered calcium carbonate. This is similar to what Sherry at No Minimalist Here uses.  I like how it turned out but as I've never seen ASCP or something painted in her chalk paint I have nothing to compare my homemade paint to. So I can't tell "if it worked out".

If you read this, and you have used ASCP yourself can you please let me know if the paint is smooth to touch before you put the wax on?  On Annie's website it talks about the paint feeling velvety and my chair does feel this but only after I'd waxed it.  COMMENTS MUCH APPRECIATED!

I think perhaps I'll have to order some sample pots from the UK to compare. .....Or I could just be happy with my version and not compare at all.

To make the chalk paint, I used a 500ml sample pot of flat latex (acrylic) paint and mixed it with 3 heaped tablespoons of calcium carbonate. I bought the calcium carbonate in the form of AG LIME (agricultural lime). I use the Ag Lime for my chickens so it was handy.  I think next time I will try a finer powder as there are little bumps in my paint that look fine on the chair but may not suit a chest of drawers or flatter surface.  I then mixed the paint with an electrical mixer (actually I used my bamix...).  I used a lovely mix of clear and dark wax over the paint.  I'm very happy with the result.

I still have to finish upholstering the chair. I'm going to use double piping which I haven't tried before.  I haven't had time to drag out my sewing machine lately. And I want to stencil a French image on to the seat and just today ordered the stencil from the States. But this blog post is about the paint so I thought I'd share the unfinished chair with you now.

Ignore those staples and ragged edge below as they will be covered by the piping.

The stencil I ordered is this one from Maison Stencils. I think it will look charming on this chair:

 The chair before was nice but very stained and dirty and I really didn't like the mottled wicker.  The wood on the flowers at the top was actually quite damaged even though it doesn't show up in the photos.

I hope this encourages you to try your own homemade chalk paint.  My chair has been painted for a month now and is wearing well. The paint has adhered extremely well and I didn't sand the chair but I did prime it.

I'll post the finished chair when the stencil arrives and it's all complete.

cheers

Fiona

Puppies and Profiteroles

A bit of a mixed post today but I wanted to share this video of these divine little puppies I saw today at the pet shop. I took my cavoodle, Charlie, in for a trim. We're heading into summer now and Charlie was suffering from the heat (although he looks a bit like a rat now he'll be much cooler and more comfortable).  These Spoodle puppies were so cute and so demanding of attention!  How divine is the little mewing noise they make.

I'd love to bring one home but with a dog, a guinea pig and four chickens we have enough pets already!

 

and I also thought I'd share some more photos of my dining room. We had very good friends from San Francisco come and stay for the weekend and on Saturday night we hosted a dinner party with friends of theirs as well. It was so wonderful catching up. (although after 3 big nights in a row I'm exhausted now!)

still loving my sideboard and mirror!

me with dessert - homemade profiteroles with chocolate sauce. No one was counting calories that night!

and all clean again the next morning once all the champagne and red wine bottles and food debris had been removed! 

Hope you all had a fun weekend!
cheers
Fiona

Girls Bedrooms - French Style

How divine are these bedrooms for girls! I have been browsing the Internet for inspiration to paint my daughter's furniture.  I got a bit sidelined by some of these beautiful French style rooms... so I had to share with you.

So many of the rooms are pink which is probably her least favourite colour but I do like this one below!

 via

 via

  via

via

via

I'm taking my little poppet to the orthodontist now. $5500 worth of damage from thumbsucking to fix...

cheers

Fiona

Lounge Room Reveal

It's finally a sunny day in Sydney and I can take some decent photos of my lounge room with its painted white floors. This room is now so bright and clean looking, it would have been a shame to take photos of it for the reveal on an overcast day.


This is possibly the cheapest most profitable make over ever. Our insurance paid us $4300 for repairing the damage to this room in the storm back in July and I've managed to only spend $250 on the room to get it to this livable state. I love being able to repair things myself and to not have to pay tradesmen through the nose to do the work for me.


The lounge room is long and relatively narrow with the back door in the centre of the room so we functionally use the room as two areas. One end to watch tv and the other side as a sitting room. When we renovate this will be one of the parts of the house I will change as I want a squarer room that doesn't have the centre of it as a walkway to the back door. I'm not 100% sure how I'll achieve that but we've got some thinking time while we save money for the renovation....


I still need to sort some art for the walls and to drill some holes in the cabinet to hide the cables. The TiVo box us usually sits in the cabinet recess but now the tv is in the centre of the cabinet the cords don't reach so I need to sort that out also.

I've been growing my finger nails and had them all nice and long but managed to break 5 of them while doing these floors. I'm not sure I'm cut out for a glamorous life.


We've got a great weekend lined up. Our good friends are getting married tomorrow afternoon which will be lovely. Our kids are going for a sleep over at their aunts' house so we'll even get a sleep in Sunday morning. And I've also got a wonderful girlfriend of mine in town Sunday from Brisbane and we're catching up in the city.


Here's to fun weekends with long time friends!


Hope you all have a good weekend also.
Cheers
Fiona

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Divine Ornate Mirror

I am so excited. I have been on the lookout for an ornate mirror that was either white or paintable for about 2 years.  You can easily buy ornate silver and gold mirrors for around $500-700 but I didn't want to spend that sort of money and then have to paint the mirror white. 

Last week I found this beauty at an auction.  I stood next to it and pointed out the damaged edge to everyone who showed the slightest interest in it and so in the end, I was the only one bidding and snagged it for $60.  It is made from timber and plaster and is in wonderful condition. The damage is minimal, there is a little bit on plaster missing from one of the scrolls. I bought some plaster of paris to fix it but ended up not worrying about it.  Once it was painted white you couldn't notice it at all.

Below is the before photo. 

I quite liked the cream and brown on the mouldings but would never have been able to live with the rest of the brown. So I whipped out the undercoat and white paint and here it is now.

Notice the bevelled edge on the mirror. I think this is lovely especially with all the curvy shape.

I am undecided of where the mirror will hang. Most probably over the French sideboard in the dining room (photo below). Or if it's too much "scroll" there and competing with the sideboard then it will hang in the hallway where the ornate blackboard is currently (see photo above).

Actually before I had a chance to hit "Publish Post", Phil has come home and hung the mirror for me above the sideboard. It's sitting a little high (using old screws in the wall) but I think it looks good.

What do you think? 

Will this room ever be finished?? You can see I still haven't painted my table and chairs. I am still undecided about what to do with the dining setting but that can wait for another post....(and those 2 french chairs still aren't uphostered...).

Have a good night!
cheers
Fiona

Crafternoon

A couple of times a week the kids and I do "Crafternoon" after school. We all love it. Today we read "The Snail and The Whale" and then the kids painted their own interpretation of a scene from the book. The rule is they aren't allowed to try and copy the exact picture. This way no one gets upset when the picture doesn't turn out exactly the same.

While they painted, I made bread dough which we later kneaded and rolled into knot rolls for the kids lunches tomorrow.

These afternoons are the reason I don't let the kids watch tv during the week.

I'm having trouble with my computer and can't log into blogger so am posting this from my iPad so I apologise for the lack of formatting.

I'll be revealing the rest of my lounge room tomorrow. Just the skirtings to paint then it's done (good enough anyway).

Cheers Fiona

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Painted White Floors

The concrete floor under our ruined carpet is terrible. It is so pitted and rough. Sandy from Paint Me White and I have been laughing that it looks like road base.  Sandy has lovely smooth concrete floors that she has painted white (after she pulled up her bright blue carpet). Her floors (along with her divine furniture and house) have been featured in magazines ... mine on the other hand will do us until we have renovated but certainly won't be attracting any attention from magazine stylists and editors.

Here's what I started with:

 and then after two coats of Berger's Jet Dry Satin White paint and 4 hours of reinstalling the built in cabinets (on legs and not a plinth, so I have access to any water that may leak in)

here is the room now.  The tv still needs to be moved back into place but it's too heavy for me to lift so it can wait for Phil to get home.

and Phil likes lying on the floor so he's requested a rug. (yes it's looking pretty bare at the moment...)

Our lounge room is actually 9 metres by 3.5 metres so this is only half of the room. I'll start painting the other side tomorrow. I couldn't do the whole room at once as I needed somewhere to stack all the furniture and cabinetry.

It's been a huge job and not one we chose to do but I quite like the rough floor, a bit like a Greek house. and so cool, especially today which has been ridiculously hot.

I still have lots of little things to do to fix this room: repair the benchtop to the cabinet where there is a split in the top, finish removing all the carpet wood tack things on the other half of the room, sort out the step into the room which is currently carpeted, paint the skirtings white (instead of the off white it currently is).

At least we can live this this till we renovate down the track.

cheers

Fiona

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