ASCP Duck Egg Blue Chest of Drawers

Good morning everyone, thanks so much for all the lovely messages about my 400th post. I have even got a bit teary from some of your emails. I am humbled. If you haven't entered the give away make sure you do!

Lately I have been making things beautiful with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Duck Egg Blue. When I bought this tin I was tossing up between it and Provence, but decided to go with the more muted tones of Duck Egg Blue. I am certainly happy with this colour.

This old chest of drawers was in my brother's room growing up. It was a vivid red in oil based paints and my mother had painstakingly stripped it back to the lovely old pine. But it was very orange....

So this chest of drawers sat in my pile of unpainted furniture for 5 months while I gathered the courage to paint it. The tough thing is that to sell it unpainted I would get barely anything for it. No one wants orange pine any more. So I gave myself permission to paint it. Although with every brush stroke I did say, "sorry, Mum" under my breath.

I gave the chest of drawers a very good clean, removing all the dust and cobwebs. Then painted on two coats of ASCP. I then decided to wax with  Howard's Feed n Wax. It has orange oil in it and is extremely easy to apply. Annie Sloan gives a good analogy for waxing. She says imagine you are putting cream on your hands. You don't just wipe the cream on to your hands and walk around with oily hands; you rub the cream into your hands so it soaks into your skin and works within your skin.  Wax is the same. You need to apply some elbow grease and make sure the wax bonds fully with the paint. 

My method for doing this is probably a little labour intensive but it results in a very smooth durable finish. I apply the clear wax with a clean white lint free rag and rub in to the furniture. You will see the paint darken as the wax is absorbed.  It doesn't matter if you are using ASCP wax or another brand. They all work in the same manner.  Once the piece is fully waxed, I will often (depending on the piece) get a fine grit sanding pad and sand the whole piece, my aim is not to distress with paint but to bond the wax and paint even more fully. Fine grade steel wool would also work well. I then give it another light coat of wax and buff it. This will give you a fantastically smooth finish and gloss.

You can see in the photo above that the top surface is smooth and reflective.  For me, this is my main aim for using chalk paint. You can also achieve this with home made DIY Chalk Paint if you can't access Annie Sloan Chalk paint or you are on a budget. You will just have to work harder as home made chalk paint is grittier.

When I paint drawers I always paint along the dovetailed join and on the inside of the furniture where the drawers slide. This way if the drawers aren't shut properly, you won't see a stripe of unpainted timber. A lot of people will tape to get straight lines, I never use painting tape as I don't like perfectly straight lines (too unnatural) and just paint a neat line.

This seems the perfect spot for this chest of drawers, the duck egg blue pulling out a similar colour in the sea foam of the painting above. However I am selling these. Too much furniture here. Please let me know if you are interested.

I am pleased with how it turned out, the colour suits the shape perfectly. I even think Mum might approve. 

Fiona xx