Annie Sloan Painting Course

The world has been awash with talk about this marvellous paint.  Paint that doesn't need sanding, priming etc etc.  I'll let you into a secret, I'm lazy and hate sanding things so this paint sounded perfect.  The problem is stockists.  Annie Sloan's shop is in Oxfordshire and I'm all the way up in the frozen north.  I'm too tight to pay for postage but I managed to find a stockist within an hours drive.  When I called the shop they told me about a course that they were running to teach the chalk paint techniques.  I ummed and ahhed for a bit but as they told me that lunch was included I was there!

The course was run by http://www.theofanointeriors.com/ in picturesque Lancashire.  The morning was spent practising paint distressing and application techniques and the afternoon was spent practising the techniques to create our own pieces.  The ladies that ran the course were great, very helpful and sooo enthusiastic about the product.  If you have a spare second I really recommend a browse round their gorgeous shop too.  i could have spent a month's wages in a heartbeat in there and still wanted to get more.

I picked up this chair in a 2nd hand shop for £2.  Bargain of the year.  It's had an application of old white and then the divine Louis Blue,  I applied a coat of clear wax and gently distressed.  I'm pretty impressed with how it has turned out.

Before - In my enthusiasm to get it painted I forgot to take a proper before picture but here is one half way through - the chair was covered in a million layers of orange toned varnish.

Halfway through

Ta daaaaaa!  The finished project - ignore the bushes that are badly in need of a trim!