If you’re on Instagram or Pinterest you would have noticed that beautiful rustic and chippy furniture is very now at the moment. Personally, I can’t get enough of it. Not everyone is brave enough - but I think ANY room in anyone’s home could welcome one chippy piece. My good friend and beautiful neighbour, Sue has a beautifully pastel Feng Shuied front room, with one chippy stool next to her sofa with books and a candle on top of it and I LOVE it. I’ve thought about taking it when she’s not looking but that might risk our friendship so I have restrained myself.
These pieces look very chic and expensive, however it’s really not difficult to do this yourself with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint. Our local ASP expert, Lynley Bigwood of Falaknaz The Warehouse, was kind enough to give me the down low on her “chippy” painting techniques. Here’s what she said;
“To achieve this look there are a number of ways. One way I have tried and love the finish of is as follows. First of all get rid of the paint brushes!”
Tools; Find either a plastic card (an old credit card will do) or a spatula works too.
Paints; Choose a minimum of 3 paint colours in contrasting colours. Strong blues/reds/oranges etc work well.
Theory; The idea is to smear layers of paint onto your surface. This won't work very easily on a surface that is carved or very textured - flat boards are perfect.
How;
Layer the paint on - don't worry about completely covering with each colour.
Let dry between colours. You will achieve a super smooth finish as the plastic card eliminates brush strokes.
Work in one direction as much as possible.
When you have finished your layers, sand back - or use a paint scraper then smooth with fine sand paper to bring up the layers of colours.
Apply clear wax to finish or if you are going to use outside ...remember no wax.”
Lynley Bigwood www.falaknazthewarehouse.com
So, I went ahead and tried Lynleys technique. Here’s how I went....
Ok, first of all, it's SO much fun slopping paint on with a credit card! I tried to get it on thick and uneven , which is the opposite to what I usually have to do so I thoroughly enjoyed myself and got paint everywhere! I didn’t get a perfect smooth finish but I think that will help with the shabby chippy look..... lets see... I did cheat a little bit though by picking up potential drips a few minutes later with a small brush.
so much fun!
Now its dry I’m going to do my second coat using Paris Grey! So I went a bit patchy and uneven – not doing a full coat. And then I couldn’t resist! I grabbed my paint scraper and went a bit nuts... I couldn’t help it! I couldn’t wait! I’m a bad person. I was never good at following rules! Sorry Lynley! I’ll do a full coat on the final layer...............................
Ok now that’s dry, I'm ready to do my last layer – a full coat of Old White! Right so I didn’t do a perfect coat, I left a few bits of blue and grey showing through. Cant wait for it to dry so I can attack it with my sandpaper!!
ready for attack with my sandpaper!
So she has dried overnight and I'm ready with my sandpaper!
And here she is; Donna the gorgeous chippy hall table.
Donna the chippy hall table
Buy Donna here on our online store www.theimperfectparlour.com
Give it a go and send us your pics!