Fasque Fancy

Fasque House is where I've been hiding....well one of the places, it has been such a very busy time, we really have been dotting about all over but Fasque is where we have been doing lots of fancy stuff.

The Grand Approach to the House

This was the prime minister Gladstone's home, and the surrounding estate is fabulous. The house has been given a major makeover and is now a prestigious wedding and conference venue. While they have developed and restored a lot of the house, Heather and Doug Dick-Reid continue to open up and restore more of the house and the area pictured below hasn't been opened up for well over 50 years. This used to be the men's servants quarters and while it doesn't have the grandeur of some of the high rooms and victorian saloons and apartments it has great character and Heather and Doug wanted something really fabulous to make this space somewhere any guest would be more than delighted to stay in. Here is how I first saw the space

Before

Heather has a great eye and is fantastically decisive (any finisher is appreciative of a swift and firm decision). She was really drawn by the new designer Italian Paint Finish Valpaint range that are exclusive in Scotland to Carte Blanche and Klondike Wall Effect was the perfect choice - it shimmers gold as the light hits it but as you move along the hallway it has a pattern and a colour and gives the space amazing atmosphere. Over and above that it is repairable, has no seams and can be easily painted out should there be significant damage by a drunken reveller.

Sample choosing for woodwork

the ceiling in Ottocento metallic suede finish - you can see the pattern and colour here

the splash of gold

dressed and ready for visitors

Just perfect

I think these are the chic-est servants quarters I ever saw....definitely not for the lower ranks. This is the very first Valpaint project in Scotland. If you would like to view the range why not pop into the studio to look at samples and catalogues

How to Use Annie Sloan Chalk Paint

I have been meaning to do a stage by stage; step by step Annie Sloan Chalk Paint because while I talk about it a fair bit in my blog .... have I shown you how to use it? No I haven't. Have I even explained to you why it is probably the best paint in the world? Nope....I don't think I ever did. Have I introduced you to the inventor of the paint? How remiss.....let's start there. Meet Annie Sloan

Annie Sloan

Annie Sloan is an interior designer, artist, writer and renowned decorative expert on world painting based in Oxford. You can read a lot more about her own her own blog here

And what is so special about the paint? 

Virtually NOOOOO Prep!

Truly you can just paint straight over varnish, wax, French polish, old paint and virtually any other surface you might find on old or new furniture. No Sanding? No Priming? No Fuss? Just Fun? Yes...all that is true. 

Obviously there are sensible things you need to do. It's best if it is clean, dust free and that the surface is sound that you will be working on - get rid of loose and flaky. Then I have a really cool person here to demonstrate the technique - Yup it's Annie herself .....

Enjoy

I know what you are thinking....it can't be that easy, she's the person who invented the stuff....there must a secret. So if you don't believe me watch these guys......I don't know what it is about this video but I have decided these guys MUST be nice....they just look lovely and you definitely want to give them a hug by the time they finish.

So that's um....let me see.....oh yes.....paint ......then wax. Simples!

Happy Painting! Don't forget to buy your paint from us, we have paint, wax books all available - the link to our online shop is on the right hand side just click through or follow this link!!!
Thanks for making these videos peeps, you saved me a LOT of writing and picture taking and your videos are WONDERFUL!

Open Doors

I wish I could get into the habit of blogging more regularly, I am just chasing my tail to keep you all up to date with happenings in the studio......and yes we are OPEN and working effectively in the studio and we open every Saturday 10am till 5pm and we are often in the studio at other times, just ring before popping in

Our Annie Sloan Shop

First I have to tell you that we had a wonderful opening....after a huge amount of work to make the space habitable and as pretty as possibly, we literally were ready on the dot of 12pm on the 8th of January and just kept our fingers crossed. - and people appeared and more and more and all through the day people came from far and wide. We had visitors from as far away as Kincardineshire and Loch Fyne, Glasgow, East Kilbride so THANK YOU alllll for making such an effort to come and join us and travelling so far to do so - thanks to our local supporters too, who gave up part of a precious Sunday to wish us well....anyway let me give you a tour of the studio finished to this point (lots more to do).

Come on in

 We managed despite it being winter to get the lower wall that belongs to us smartened up and painted and our nasty door cleaned up.....and look you step up a colour chart, not a staircase

night time view

And at our dark winter evenings our Antibes Green door glows and invites you in

Remember that idea I had wayyyy back for a colour chart

 Regular visitors might remember me being inspired by a colour chart painted on a wall (see it again here)
Try as I might I couldn't make it look nice on the brick so we did it on sample cards which worked really well

Colour Chart

One of Gibson's stencil designs greets you

revitalised piece - the back of a wardrobe

 Gibson had picked up a great panelled piece of wood that had these lovely hooks on - it was very stained and dark but a wash of Paris Grey followed by liming wax made so chic....I just love it.

the kitchen

Love my bathroom

The loo is probably the most "finished" part of the studio Paris Grey on the back wall, I think that brick surface really suits the mattness of Chalk Paint and that old pine chest of drawers looks fabulous with Versailles and finished with clear wax. I need new flooring and to grout the tiles and we are done. 

The floor is Provence...not finished yet but looked good for the opening

So nice to be able to put our samples up and not have them get damp like in the old studio

Our teaching tables and the library corner

We did some demonstrations and these attracted a wee crowd. 

Does my bum look big in this??? There NO doubt

a quick bit of marbling

Our new class list includes a short class to teach this marble and another simple fantasy marble.

Finally the winner of the Great Paint Give-away was  Gillian Morris of Eggshell and Chalk a long time custome of Carte Blanche and Annie Sloan Chalk Paint and so we were delighted she one and what made it better was that as she entered she said to Gibson "I don't know why I am bothering cos I never win anything" so it was nice for her to start the New Year off breaking that pattern.

A Great UK Paint Giveaway - Annie Sloan Paint Prize Draw

The American Annie Sloan stockists have been giving paint away in prize draws all last month and I thought it was pretty sad that no-one was giving out paint in the UK. To celebrated our new studio open day we decided we would have a prize draw. Here is the prize ....

Worth £72.79

Two litres of Chalk Paint in colours of your choice, 2 sample pots in colours of your choice, 2 waxes, a dark and a clear and Annie's lovely book "Creating the French Look".

So how do you get your name in the hat?? You can actually get your name in the hat loads of times over. For each of these things that you do you get your name in the hat once

1. Follow this blog ....how do you do that? Look to the right hand side and scroll down until you see the "Blog Followers" title and click the "join this site" button.
2. "Like" our Facebook Page
3. Follow me on Twitter - @paintycait
4. Sign up for our newsletter -click here
5. Forward that newsletter when you get it by clicking the "forward email" link (usually at the bottom of the newsletter)
6. Finally come to our Open House on Sunday 8th of January between 12pm and 4pm and this is when we will make the draw at 4pm ....Unit 7, 14 Dunkeld Road, Perth PH1 5RW

 So you don't have long but you do have lots of opportunities and you could get your name in the hat 6 times improving your chances of winning this cracking prize. This is open to anyone in the UK and includes shipping to all UK Mainland areas.
So get clicking!!!, joining liking and then painting......

A 7 YR Old Can Do This & So Can You- Annie Sloan Chalk Paint

Let me introduce you to my niece Mathilda (known as Tildy to family).

Mathilda is 7 years old and as can be seen absolutely gorgeous (especially in her Carte Blanche apron) and of course is a genius because she is related to me but Mathilda has never painted furniture before. Last week she came with her family for lunch at the studio and while her Mum and brother, who are both fashionistas, headed off to nearby TK Maxx in search of jeans she decided to stay with me and her Dad and she said to me she would like to paint something. Well....I was busy washing up and chatting to her Dad and since I had already started this chair I literally just handed her a brush and the pot of  Annie Sloan Chalk Paint (Aubusson) in faith that really....nothing can go wrong.
She was struggling a little with the spindles on the back and I gave her a wee hint on how to do those (I explained that it is easiest to slap the paint brush  flat against them and then just gently brush the paint down the spindle)...then went back to chatting.....she needed a little guidance on the seat on how to just finish off the  paint, she had covered the seat but it was "lumpy" so I just showed her how to gently use the tips of the bristles to just lay off all the paint.
Now before I knew it she was telling me where I had missed on the legs and she was "touching up"....Thank goodness for Mathilda because I had missed quite a lot.


When Tildy had gone I expected to have to tidy up a bit....but do you know, a little sand and a wax and the result was fabulous.

How lovely is this chair

and chairs are hard...even for pros

The thing about Annie Sloan Paint is that even if it isn't perfect, it gives character

and here we are playing with Annie Sloan Fabrics

Now, if 7 year old Mathilda (who is gorgeous and a genius ....but still only 7) can do this......SO CAN YOU!

If you would like to see just how gorgeous this chair looks in real life then why not drop into the studio for our open day on Sunday 8th January  12-4pm for a glass of Proseco and a little smoked salmon......and a demonstration of the paint from a grown up.....but will I live up to Mathilda's prescedent??

Yummy Canvases

 I had a wonderful time making gilded canvas pictures as Christmas presents. I am really looking forward to doing some more some time soon

Mini Canvas...not brave enough to do the big one straight off

Once I got brave I made the one that was for my brother - James (Very Talented Brother) had mentioned he and (also talented and gorgeous) wife Harriet needed artwork for their newly painted walls. Not normally my metier but once I got started I really got into it. I bought pre-stretched canvases and gilded with metal leaf and then patinated the surface. Here was the first biggy

Here are 2 close ups .....I do LOVE the patinas

Having decided to do one for brother Jim, I also got it in my head that my brother in law John should have one too but his would be copper with a hint of green coming through

It was all a bit mad chemist in the studio while I did this, getting the best patination fluid from household products ....of course I left it all too late to order proper ones. Chemical drain clearer came out tops and I just have one tip.....wear gloves!!!!

Shopping

While all the world and their wives have been shopping for Christmas I have been doing a different sort of shopping, I have been working on our on-line shop. Not the lead up to Christmas I had anticipated but with an incredibly busy New Year coming up I thought I had better get it done - a now or never situation.
You can now buy Annie Sloan Chalk Paint, and Classes direct from here on the blog. Look to your right and scroll down to "SHOP here" click on a category and the shop will open up in a separate window in front of you.

I am feeling really clever because not only can you buy from here you can also buy from our Facebook Page 
 

and if you haven't liked the page yet.....please do!

 
Finally I have the new classes scheduled and listed. Thanks to a very talented finisher Pat Strong from Texas who I have never met, but have corresponded with for YEARS, we have a range of classes known as Every Second Thursday. She opens her studio for classes and opens studio nights every second Thursday and we loved the concept so...that is what we are doing.
Every second Thursday in the evening, we will either have an open studio or a short class in a specialist subject. Bookings can be made in advance, or it can be made on the night on a first come first served basis. The studio will always be open from 6pm until 9pm on these evenings. Classes are £30 and Open Studios are where we open our studio to you for your own use. Want to try any of the Annie Sloan Chalk Paints? Want to gild some detail with metal leaf? Want to use one of our stencils? For 3 hours the studio is open to you and you can work with any of the products normally used in the Annie Sloan Furniture Painting Class; all our class brushes and tools are available to you and any reasonable amount of other products in the paint store plus coffee and tea for a grand fee of £15.

The first short class will be to gild a 50cm square panel and apply a freehand design to it. No worry if you can't hand paint...we can stencil instead,  enabling you to produce something like this funky piece

Very Rock Chick!

I hope you will check it all out. I still have tweaks to do...fonts, font sizes etc. so don't be too harsh. I am so thrilled to be able to update things now that I have had a lesson from our wonderful website designer Evie Milo and there is so much still to update - I have to treat it as a work in progress.

Colour Schemes....for my new studio

So I am enjoying Pinterest....if you haven't heard of Pinterest it is an on-line pin board; you see something you like and you pin it. You store all your favourite images in one place; you have multiple boards and can store different areas of interest and you can look at other people's boards, and people can look at yours, follow you and so on....you have to request an invitation which takes a little time and then you can join the party. On my Pinterest, which is here paintycait, I have been pinning ideas for the new studio.

The ceiling is so awful

Horrible Ceiling

and I can do nothing about it, so I want to draw attention to the floor and I couldn't decide what to do with it till I started seeing one particular colour scheme that I LOVED and it kept popping up everywhere.

From Harpers Bazaar

Check how that reddy pink pops....all a bit too much of the Teal but hey...then I found this

From Posie Gets Cosy

Isn't it nice and fresh with a bit more white....ooh and pink AND red, who would think that would work

and then I found this one

From Better Homes and Gardens

Oh my so all this white is fabulous....I never thought I would hear myself say that but my walls will stay white and at some point I will paint the ceiling (when my back isn't against the wall) and the floor will be ......Annie Sloan of course 

Provence

and the accent colour will be

Emperors's Silk

and what about this for the Annie Sloan Showroom area - what a way to create a colour chart

From The Selvedge Yard

Tutorial - Quick and Easy Marble Finish

This was a finish I have been meaning to post for a while and I took stage by stage photos while I did it especially so I could do a little tutorial but it has taken me an age to get round to it.
Those that read my blog or follow Carte Blanche on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/carteblanchedecorativepainters) or follow me on Twitter (@paintycait) know that I am in San Francisco now teaching a class in graining and marbling on the first leg of my US tour. I am having a wonderful time with Lynne Rutter and her husband Erling who are the most marvellous hosts.
For those that can't be with us in class here is a real money-maker marbleize to keep you busy. Here was the furniture set we did for a client in this Italianate style marble and it was so quick and easy. This could be done in any colour combination. Here I used Raw Umber, Burnt Umber and Paynes Grey on an off white eggshell base coat.

The furniture before it left the workshop

The process was to apply the clear glaze - we used Ratcliffes Acrylic Scumble which is available in UK but you could use Faux Effects Faux Creme or Proceed.

I added in the colours in swathes across the surface loosely blending them -  this could be done with a scenic fitch, a chip brush or a decorators brush

 Then use painter's plastic dust sheet and press it into the paint and do this in a linear fashion to create marbly shapes

Look for shapes like this

and patterns like this

 Using a badger softener soften some of the shapes out but make sure not to lose patterns like the one above. You need to move quite quickly to get the whole area softened before the Ratcliffes Glaze goes off, but Proceed Glaze and Faux Creme will give more open time

Secret Weapon

Next comes the veining and I have found a very nice cheap synthetic veining brush that you can buy in most art stores the Daler #2 liner.

this is the type of vein I think works well - a white one

a darker one too.....soften these with a badger

veining

 and VOILA