The House Enthusiast: June 2014

I'm in love with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint because you don't have to sand or prime your piece. You can paint on wood, metal, glass, plastic, fabric and basically whatever you want to paint. And the paint dries in 20 minutes. I don't know why everyone doesn't use it. Well, it IS a little pricey, but since I only have tiny nuggets of time to do ANYTHING by myself, it's a no-brainer for me.

I've wanted to paint this IKEA step stool since we bought it. We actually have 2 - one for each of the boys.

I've been hoarding images off the 'net that I liked. Here are a few of my inspirations.

Source from top left to bottom right: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

These are all better than mine and the photography is MUCH better, but I'm not unhappy with the turnout. I decided to go with an understated distressed look.

Here is the before picture, which is silly because I already showed you what it looked like above, but we've GOT to have the before shot, yes?

I used Louise Blue for the first coat. It would have taken me about 15 minutes to paint it, but I employed two strong, young men who had stripped down to their underwear to help me. This added about 20 minutes :-) and a bath.

After the first coat was done, I waited about 20 minutes for the paint to dry. Then I added the second coat, Old Ochre. This one I got to do alone, so it took about 15 minutes. I finished with Clear Wax and then did a little sanding to bring out just a bit of the under color. I really wanted it to be understated. And I REALLY have to work on my photography skills.

So here's the after shot:

So, what did my helpers think when they saw the finished product? There were tears. Lots of tears. They wanted a BLUE step stool. Sigh. The second stool will most likely be solid blue. Maybe.