French Paris Apartment mirror and a love of painting

Good morning my fellow painted furniture lovers!  At least I hope there is no one here who hates old wood being kissed by paint because you might be rolling your eyes at me today - I've been having fun painting old cedar but I really think it had to be done.

Do you like it?  This mirror was from an old dresser that I bought recently. I think it's very old fashioned to have the matching mirror over the dresser as a dressing table so I usually separate them and make the mirror a wall hung one and turn the dressing table into a chest of drawers. The mirror was VERY brown when I got it and I initially was thinking of painting it white but after my recent grey and white desk I thought I'd do the same again but this time age it with dark wax as well. 

I initially cleaned the mirror first with a brush as it was very dusty and then with a damp rag and some milk soap. Once it was clean and dry I painted the whole mirror timber trim in Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Paris Grey, I didn't tape the mirror off but just carefully painted around the edges and not worrying too much if some paint got on the glass as it's easy enough to remove.  With the darker colours of Annie Sloan Chalk paint you do not need two coats for good coverage - especially as I was planning on distressing and antiquing it anyway. Once the grey paint was dry I got out one of my thick water colour brushes and painted the ornately carved features that I wanted highlighted in Annie Sloan Chalk Paint Pure White. I found some lovely big watercolour brushes for about $3 each at Bunnings craft section. They are fantastic for this sort of detail on painted furniture.  They hold a good amount of paint but allow you to be reasonably precise.

I am showing you these close up so that you can see you don't need to be that neat for it to look good from normal viewing distance. Actually if it's perfectly neat it will just look like it's made in a factory somewhere in Asia, rather than lovingly hand painted.

After painting the trim I left it all to dry and cure for 24 hours. I have found that with the chalk paint that if you wax and distress it right away as soon as it dries a lot more paint comes off and I really didn't want this piece to be heavily distressed.  I applied the clear wax first and then got my wax brush and dappled on the Annie Sloan Dark wax making sure I got into all the crevices and only working on small sections at a time. Almost immediately after applying the dark wax, I used a clean rag and removed a lot of it so it stayed in the grooves and brush marks but not staining the paint.

I then sanded down the whole piece with my foam pad sander and distressed where I wanted it with a fine grit sand paper. It is now wonderfully smooth (as you know if you've been reading my blog for a while, I have a thing for smooth finishes. I am always running my hand over furniture in shops and antique centres, feeling up the furniture!)

When I was chatting with Annie Sloan recently (see this post about our skype session,) I mentioned that one reason I love painting furniture is that while it's creative and slightly artistic, it's very practical. I find it extremely relaxing to paint and I just love making something old and unloved, new and functional again.  Furniture is practical, Annie said that's one reason she loves it also.  I love seeing things transformed under my paint brush.

I am undecided if I will sell or keep the mirror. My intention was to sell it but when I propped it up in out hallway to take photos of it I realised how well it suits the rest of our house. What do you think?

I'm finding myself gravitating to the more muted "French tones" rather than the all white I have preferred for our house. Perhaps it's my way of getting ready for winter. It is definitely cooler in the evenings and early mornings here now. 

I've got a few exciting things to share tomorrow. In the mean time I hope you have a lovely day

Fiona xx

Sources

Mirror - second hand find

White Paint - ASCP in Pure White given to my by Annie Sloan Unfolded

Wax - ASCP Clear and Dark Wax - given to my by Annie Sloan Unfolded