Windsor Carver Chairs in ASCP French Linen

While I was away in America a lovely neighbour of mine, Cassie, emailed and asked if I wanted some chairs. She had wanted to paint them herself but they are in the midst of renovating, working and expecting a baby so she decided to let them go. I said "Yes please, and can you drop them on the enormous pile of furniture waiting to be painted in my carport".

I thought the chairs would be a great candidate for the Annie Sloan Chalk Paint I bought from Knot Too Shabby while I was in California.  I bought French Linen and Old White - both these colours go very well with the neutral tones of my house and I find them very soothing, especially accented with deep purples, blue and white.

I didn't worry about sanding (except to remove some of the bumpy varnish in one spot) in accordance with Annie's instructions but just gave them a good clean as they were very dusty from sitting outside in our carport and just got straight into painting. 

Although painting these chairs with all their spindles was tedious, people, I have to say that I love this Chalk Paint - it is so much smoother than home made chalk paint and has a lovely matte finish.  I first gave the chairs a full single coat and then filled in the little holes (where the chairs had been previously upholstered) with wood filler.  I always paint first and then fill as the holes show up much better after a coat of paint and I won't miss any. I then sanded the wood filler smooth and gave the chairs another coat where necessary.  The coverage of ASCP in French Linen is excellent. A lot of the chairs only needed one coat. For both these chairs, I used about 1 cm depth of my tin so there is still heaps left.

The chairs looked a little bleak just grey so I added a fleur de lis and a white trim to the seats. I used a home made stencil to outline the fleur de lis and then filled in the detail and painted the white edging with a firm artists brush and a steady hand. I then waxed them and distressed then lightly.

The beautiful knitted blanket you see on the chair above was a recent purchase. I had planned on buying this for my mother for Christmas as we had seen it in our favourite shop when we last went shopping together.  It's 100% Australian merino wool and just beautiful. I saw it again the other day and thought I would buy it as a reminder of her (as you may recall she died recently. What's a nicer way of saying that? I really struggle phrasing it nicely... Wow I miss her - she would know how to phrase it well, literary giant that she was!!). 

Here are the chairs before - they were a nasty two toned wood colour and had been badly varnished, as you can see on the central panel on the right hand side photo.

I was chatting to Annie Sloan last night via facebook and she confirmed that her paint will be available in Australia in February 2013!! 

How exciting!

So what do you think about my chair makeover? 

You like?

...if you like them a lot they are for sale. $95 each

Just send me a message for details.

Fiona xx

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