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Last week I reviewed American Paint Company chalk paints. This week, I wanted to give my review on the Annie Sloan Chalk Paint (ASCP ) brand.
I know. Most of you have heard of this product and have also probably tried it, but since this is the paint I use most for my furniture up-styling and really the standard I compare others too, I really needed to give it a comprehensive review.
For over 10 years I have been painting furniture and always with a latex. In the last year I have discovered, along with so many others, chalk paints and in particular ASCP. It completely changed painting furniture for me.
With ASCP painting became easier, quicker, and ...fun. I have, for the most part, completely stopped using latex. While some people may still like it, I think latex takes too long to dry, often leaves drips, can sometimes peel up when sanded and is basically...not fun.
When I first started using ASCP, I spent some time on the website learning about the product and from there I followed the links to a local retailer. I found there was one nearby and the next day I made my first purchase. This product was a dream to use. And other than getting some basic pointers, I found it virtually fool proof.
While I found the website a little tedious to navigate, there is a lot of good information and good links to tutorials. I especially liked the Annie Sloan Youtube channel here.
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| Annie Sloan French Linen |
Working With the Product
Working with the ASCP is a joy. I painted one of my first pieces in French Linen, a darker neutral gray. I opened the can and with no priming, began to paint. The product was thick, yet still,creamy and easy to apply. And even over a dark stained wood piece, only 2 coats were really needed. It also dried quickly, within half an hour. So, in less than a day, I was able to apply two coats and sand to distress!
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| Great coverage even after just one coat. |
And talking about sanding, Annie Sloan recommends waxing and then sanding, to help with the dust. I prefer to sand first and wax only after I am sure I like my distressing. It does create some dust so you may want to do this outside.
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| Easy to sand and smooth….but lots of dust! |
While it sands easily to distress, sanding does seem to leave some sheen differences. With the Fench linen, it seemed that where I sanded, the color became lighter and I spent some time trying to lightly sand everything to get a smooth and consistent color. However, I may have obsessed over this more than I needed.
Waxing
Annie Sloan wax comes in two colors, clear and dark. These were the first furniture waxes I ever used. Now, let me start by saying I love waxing way more than applying polyurethanes. It gives a natural look while most polys I find to look like plastic.
It is also forgiving. You can remove it with mineral spirits if you need to and if a stray pet hair would land in the finish (and when hasnt that happened!), there is plenty of time to pick it out. In poly, that sucker will dry in there for good.
Overall, Annie Sloans waxes are good, but they are not my favorite.
As I have experimented with more waxes, I found Annies to have strong fumes, remain tacky longer, and take some time to get a finish that looks "even."
It is really important to apply evenly, with long strokes and to remove excess. Again, maybe I obsess here. View The Purple Painted Ladys great tutorial here for tips,
www.thepurplepaintedlady.com/2012/08/how-to-apply-clear-wax-video/
Heres a rundown of Annie Sloan products:
Annie Sloan Chalk Paint Point of Difference
From her website, "HOME of the BEST PAINT in the WORLD!". "Annie Sloan developed her signature range of decorative paint, Chalk Paint®, in 1990, she revolutionized the way we see decorative painting. She called her paint Chalk Paint® because of its velvety, matt finish. And if you add Annie Sloan Soft Wax, you can achieve subtle sheen as well as protection and durability
With a colour palette inspired by 18th and 20th Century decor and design, you can easily mix the colours together to extend the range. Chalk Paint® is eco-friendly too. It contains extremely low volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and has no odor.
Price Point (varies)
Paint $36.95 per quart and $11.95 for 4oz samples
Wax $24.95
Where to Order
Website www.anniesloan.com and click on American Shops for local retailers in the U.S.
My favorite online www.thepurplepaintedlady.com
Near me in Maryland/Virgina try www.shop.catfishcreativefurnishings.com. This shop is run by Celeste, one of the nicest and most talented stockiest I have had the pleasure to meet.
Best Annie Sloan Advice and Instruction
Check out Annies own youtube channel at www.youtube.com/user/AnnieSloanOfficial
Also check out www.thepurplepaintedlady.com
Her tutorials and posts are really thorough!
Color Palette Review
Annie sloan has a pallette of thirty shades and honestly, every color is drop dead beautiful. They give furniture the quintessential French chick look and her shades are the most requested by my clients.
My favorites so far…this is a tough one because they all are amazing…
French Linen
Paris Grey
Old Ochre
Aubusson Blue
Duck Egg Blue
Chalk Paint Application Review
It has a nice smooth consistency and I love that it gives such great coverage making it last long. So far it is creamier and requires less coats than my last review for American Paint Products. As with other Chalk Paints, for the smoothest application, I recommend doing your second or a light third coat with ASCP thinned with water.
Wax Review
While I still use Annie Sloans waxes, they are not my wax "go to" wax (see my review on American Paint Products here to read what wax I am using now). Overall, there are other waxes that have no fumes and are easier to apply.
Also, the dark wax must be applied over clear wax or you will stain the paint and not be able to remove "it." Some dark waxes can be applied without clear wax, which saves time and money.
Annie also offers great brushes for waxing. While they are a little pricey, I recommend buying at least the large one. It will last you forever. I usually dont use much dark wax so I apply dark wax with an inexpensive chip brush.
What I loved Best
Smooth and easy application
Great coverage
The best colors
Favorite TipsHow to get a smooth chalk paint finish by The Purple Painted Lady, www.thepurplepaintedlady.com/2013/04/basic-tips-on-painting-laying-the-paint-video/
How to clean your wax brush by The Purple Painted Lady,
www.thepurplepaintedlady.com/2012/08/how-to-clean-your-ultimate-wax-brush-and-wax-information/
How to keep your chalk paint from drying out,
2013/09/three-ways-to-protect-preserve-and.html
Also check out here….great answers to so many questions.. on Annie Sloan Unfolded
www.anniesloanunfolded.com/faqs
Read More..
It all started one dark and dreary night a few weeks back.
Okay it wasnt dreary I just liked how that sounded.
This big buffet came up for auction and someone got it.
I wasnt bidding on it and cant remember the price it went for.
Come to find out a friend of ours had tried to bid on it but couldnt go as high as the winning bid.
I was disappointed for her but several days later when we picked up our
auction purchases, the big buffet was still unclaimed.
I let our friend know right away and she returned the following week
to rebid on the piece and win for a much better price.
Now somewhere in all this, the big buffet came to me to spray.
All I was going to do was spend a few hours in the warm sun giving the big beast
a few coats of old white chalk paint. Leigh would do the rest of the work.
Sounds simple huh?
Out of more than a dozen ASCP pieces I have done to date
I have never encountered anything like this or even heard of this happening.
I also just read about a lady painting her fridge in ASCP cream color and it adhered great.
SO what on earth happened here?
The paint started to flake as it dried.
In one small spot and spread like a diseased wildebeest on the Savannah.
Paint was falling to the ground on its own.
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| first try |
I didnt have time to play around.
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| second try |
No more fooling around ... I sanded the entire upper cabinet with 80 grit,
It worked!!
Happy Dance?
So I hand sanded the lower cabinet too.
I believe an oil was used on this cabinet, an oil that sits on the surface.
There was no way to know ahead of time as you didnt see or feel anything.
Its like a lottery I suppose, every now and then you will come across
a piece of furniture that has a mysterious product on it that just wont allow chalk paint to adhere.
Doing test patches with your paint will save you time if you think there could be an issue.
Clean your project with something that will cut oil,
I.E. TSP, SOAP AND WATER, HOUSEHOLD SPRAY DEGREASER
Note: nothing was harmed in the making of this project although I did want to throw things.
Read More..
Im an impulsive person. When I think of something, I must do it.
And then, when I think of something else, I must do that as well.
That leaves me doing a lot of different things and sometimes at the same time.
So, where am I going with this? Well, I find that my impulsivity affects my painting. When I want to start painting a new piece of furniture, I want to start painting.
I gather my brushes and other supplies, open my paint can and begin. And this, lack of planning has led to some problems, particularly with chalk paint.
You see, I like to paint directly out of the can. In my flurry to begin my project, pouring paint into another container would slow me down, it would be messy and I am certain it would interrupt my creative process. So, I paint out of my can, dipping and wiping my brush along the side.
But...this is what I end up with.
The paint that I wipe along the sides ends up drying along the lid. The lid never fits tight after that and eventually, the paint remaining inside thickens. At almost $40 a quart, this is a waste! So, I figured if I wanted to enjoy the spontaneity of painting out of a can,
I had to come up with some ways to preserve my chalk paint.
3 Ways To Protect, Preserve and Store
Your Precious Chalk Paint
1. Create a temporary and reusable lid with an old or new Ziplock twist lid...they fit perfectly!!
Creating a temporary lid gives me a lip to catch the paint on,
without getting any paint on the actual rim of the can.
Here, I used a hot tool with a blade to cut a circle
leaving about a half inch rim to catch the paint.
You can also use scissors if you carefully drill a hole in the center and cut outwards.
Just eyeball the circle. It does not have to be perfect.
Plop this on your can and as you paint it will catch all your paint. When finished painting, remove it, rinse it and save it to reuse.
This is how my new can of paint looks after using the zip lock lid. Much better.
2. With my rims clean from the storage lid, my paint can be kept safely in their original cans. However, when my quart of paint starts to run really low, I sometimes like to move what is unused into empty mason jars. They store paint air tight and they look pretty. Mason jars can just do anything with style!
3. Finally, another way you can keep your chalk paint fresh is with Annie Sloan storage lids.
These look wonderful. They are only $4.95 each and can be purchased at one of my favorite sites, www.thepurplepaintedlady.com.
Now, no more dried out paint:)
Well here goes....my first post!As a lover of paint, it only follows that my first post is about, yes, you got it....PAINT! Now, there is a lot one can say about paint but Im going to start by talking about what is all the rage in painted furniture right now, Annie Sloan Chalk Paints.Annie Sloan Chalk Paint is a line of paint developed by, ok you got it again, Annie Sloan, a decorative painter and author who lives in England. A great description of the chalk paint comes right from her website at anniesloan.com and follows below:"About the Chalk Paint
Painting with our paint should always be a pleasure.
Annie Sloan developed her now famous Chalk Paint to answer the need she had for a paint which would have many uses from acting like limewash to looking like old painted furniture and that had a good range of colour that could be extended by the user. This paint is very easy to work with and allows people to be creative as one doesnt get involved with the technicalities of preparation and it also allows you to change your mind without hassle."
The first thing I have to say about Annie Sloan paint is that the color palette is delish. Soooo pretty and very french. I choose for my first colors the Paris Grey and Original (a warm off white). I also purchased the clear and dark wax and the large brush. And let me tell you, spring for the brush! Its amazin! For my first project, I wanted to tackle something small and manageable so I got workin on fixin up a mirror from an old bedroom set and let me tell you, I am just lovin it (sounding a bit too country, think?).So here are my project how tos: |
| Old oak mirror from a bedroom set, pretty blah! |
- With Annie Sloan paint(ASP), they say you dont need to prime, which is music to my ears, so just paint it on like you would with a latex paint and your favorite paint brush.
- Great Annie tip, dont even bother with taping a mirror or window. Just use a piece of scrap paper to move along the edge as you paint.
- Great coverage and dry time! ASP covers great so I only needed one coat with a light second and it dries so quickly you can do several layers and wax in a day!
- After paint was dry, I sanded my piece to distress with a 100 grit sanding block. Then, I sealed the painted mirror with the clear wax (which is your top protective coat) using Annies wonderful big brush. I worked in sections and added some dark wax here in there for some antiquing. NOTE: Annie says sand after waxing. Why? This is because it keeps the dust down. However, I found that I like to sand after paint is dry and before waxing, despite the dust, because I like to sand, step away, sand more, and then sometimes I want to go back and paint over an area that is too distressed or whatever it is that is bothering me and I dont want the wax. I wait until I have my project mostly completed before I wax.
- The finished product....beautiful!
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| Upstyled mirror with Annie Sloan Paris Grey |
