Sunday, February 10, 2013

the experiment

Annie Sloan Chalk Paint®!

(This is COMPLETELY different than "chalkboard" paint--so do not be confused.)

I've been seeing posts EVERYWHERE in blogdom about ASCP and I wanted to see what all the fuss was about.  (The beauty of ASCP is there's NO prep necessary as with latex or oil-based paints.  No stripping, no sanding, no priming...just start with a clean surface. 

By the grace of paint, there's a shop 20 minutes away from my house that carries the stuff:  A lovely little shop called Second Betty.  The next closest shop is 2 hours away.  Yikes.   The owner was the absolute SWEETEST gal and I could have stayed there for hours.

She was incredibly helpful, then she happily took a bunch of my money.  :)

But the super-nice thing about buying from a local shop is the fact when you get home, you get to open a lovely gift!  Much nicer than the icky plastic bags from the Mart of Wal...






For anyone who's remotely familiar with ASCP, Paris Grey seems to be the most popular color.  I went into the shop with every intention of scooping up just that color...until...I saw a piece she painted in Coco and Old White.  

It was love at first Old White.  Sight.


See...I still seem to have issues embracing Greys. Grays. Whatever.

I had just purchased a piece that was going to serve as my virginal foray into ASCP, but then I looked at my tired old jewelry box my Mom gave me when I was prolly about 13 years old.  I still have it, and it still sits front-and-center of my dresser.



And it could seriously use some TLC.





The first thing our lovely dealer (paint dealer guys...) told me is to turn the cans upside-down for 20 minutes to help distribute the pigments in the paint.  Then shake and stir...like a confused martini.



While blending, I cleaned up "Jewels" so she'd be ready for paint.  I debated whether or not to remove the hardware, since I plan on painting it.  (Yes, you CAN paint hardware with this paint...no prep!)




I decided to remove the hardware to make my hubby proud.  I'm glad I did since I was able to eradicate the dust bunnies who had been camping out amidst the hardware.

Before eradication:

 
After de-bunnying:



I took a deeeeeep breath....and painted.  I started with a smallish artist-type brush to paint the "grooves" in Coco.  Then onto the body of Jewels in Old White.  Since it's such a small piece and I needed to get into smaller areas, I used a small, cheap, chip brush.  Unfortunately, they're hairy and tend to shed like a German Shepherd.




With the first coat, I found the paint was WAY too thick, so with the second coat, I thinned it with water and found it much easier to work with.



I applied second coats all around, then decided to go ahead and try another technique I'd read about: applying a wash.  I thinned the Coco A LOT and painted a very thin wash over everything.

You can't tell much from these pics, but it's painted Old White, then washed with very watery Coco, then immediately wiped off with a clean cotton cloth.  I liked the look so much, I did a second round of the wash so it would show up better.




Once dry, I applied a thin coat of wax over the entire piece.  I'm not a huge fan of a lot of distressing, but since this really was my first practice piece, I thought I'd try as many things as possible.  So, after the wax cured, I did some light sanding so some of the original wood would show through.

Wood would.  Huh.

OH!  I also used a soft, cotton cloth to buff the wax for a very light sheen.

I sanded the hardware a bit so some of the metal would be visible.



Anyway, here's the finished product!





Here you can see the distressing and the wash:











Before and After:





I'm still a complete novice with ASCP, so I'm hoping after using it a couple more times I'll have a much better feel for it.

And here's the next piece I'll be using my ASCP on!  (Scary...It kinda looks like a giant version of Jewels...Hmmm....)

   


 

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