Welcome Home

It is lovely to be away especially in France but we did miss home - son James said he even missed rain. I thought I did till I saw what it was doing to our studio back home

Here is what my darling husband has been coping with in my absence.....a drenched studio, buckets everywhere and everything stuffed anywhere where it won't get wet. The studio situation that has been dire for so long and is now not tolerable.....time to find a new studio.

There have always been problems associated with our studio and some have got worse over the years

• it has always been a bit leaky
• it is shared with our landlords so we have to clear the floor once a month for them to have a meeting
• we have mad neighbours - they believe they own the road (they don't) and don't want anyone parking outside; they have thrown out items left at our door by clients; they block up the fire door; they need to get a life
• the access isn't brilliant especially if you can't park outside, we have to walk through said neighbours garden

So why have we stayed there for 10 years.....it's cheap

Poor Gibson was deeply depressed by the whole thing, desperately trying to paint in these conditions and no news of the new roof - although planning permission has at last come through we have decided to move and hope to have exciting news soon.

So coming home from France felt a bit flat and I had to try and remind myself of why I love home. It wasn't hard. Firstly I adore the light...there is nothing quite like the Scottish light and at this time of year it is so soft and mellow and with the cloud and mists it is heartmelting

Late afternoon

Dawn

Low cloud on Craig Rossie

One of my favourite things about this time of year is to see the tall pink spikes of Willow Herb - the prettiest weed ever. It blushes our drive and all down the edges of the fields with it's delicate pink blossoms that will turn to white cotton wool fluff seed formations soon

our drive

up close

And the food in France is wonderful, all the lovely markets, the fresh bread and lovely cheeses but we do some pretty amazing food here too. We often forget what wonderful raw materials we have to work with and here is a seasonal best...our own Scotch Lamb

this was fresh, light and fabulous with just some garden Rosemary and Granny's Redcurrant jelly to serve

 

Vicarious France 2 - Versailles and Painty Stuff

We had a brief but welcome break the last day we were in France after a lot of long hours working and we were grateful for a quick dash to the Palace of Versailles. The Palace is amazing but trust me ...don't visit on a Saturday afternoon early in July. There is too much to show you it all...but here is a touch of the painty stuff.

First off all every room has it's skirting boards marbled to match the fireplaces...nice touch

baseboards matching the fireplace below

I think this is Breche d'Alep Marble

There is the most beautiful room that is all painted in the most exquisite trompe l'oil....

James looking a tad glakit

jaw droppingly gorgeous

This is my favourite - the shell

lots of marbling...most of it stunning like this

and beautifully combined...nothing is overworked

OK so this is perhaps a little OTT for ...almost too much take in

my favourite bit of the mural painting was this central design

I have to say that  there is so much of everything you almost become inured to the beauty...after you have seen endless mural paintings it is the cartouche and the actual layout that starts to catch your eye

There is endless real marble (I will compile an album for my marbling mates) and much as I hate to say this but it does become samey...you start to think that these Palace dwellers got a job lot from their interior designer. So turning a corner and finding this fabulous raised and gilded ornamentation is really refreshing - and like everything else it is of exquisite quality.

I love this marbled ceiling

There are a few of these marbled ceilings and I LOVE them. They again are not overworked, the layout is simple and the marbling well composed. Any busier and it would look horribly false...and yet panels of Carrara marble would be impossible to put on a ceiling like this so it should FEEL false, but it doesn't.

Deliciously gilded doors

This look I saw in a few places, Paris Grey doors with gilded panel bead. It is so Parisian so chic...where oh where can I put it????

Vicarious France 1 - Food

I am so sorry I haven't been here for such an age.... so much has happened in the last month it will take me an age to catch up.

As many of you know James (son of 16 yrs) and I have been in France working. I took lots of wonderful pictures to share with you and then my laptop died. My client kindly lent me her laptop but the laptop spoke only French. It turns out I don't understand the French for "download to a file"......many of the photos are no more. However I have plenty others to share....I hope to give you a taste of our French trip.

It has taken an age for the laptop to be mended and for me to get all my info back onto it - this time it needed a whole new hard-drive - but finally I am back in Blogger and ready to share.

Before we left a friend said "I want to share France Vicariously"...so no paint in this post just Vicarious France concentrating on food.

A Cheese Dream

This cheese shop was my idea of heaven

Cheese and Wine - it gets better

Cheese Wine and Marble.....I could barely leave

I almost had to be restrained - the shop front was wood-grained

I love French food markets ...actually most French markets of any kind are good but the market in St Germaine en Laye was particularly gorgeous

Why does my son hate shellfish...how is it possible

The radish as an art-form

Our Pretty Boulangerie,

Every morning James would visit the Boulangerie that was only moments from our door and order our bread in his little used French accent and be bombarded with French from the Boulanger, and every day he would stiltingly try to explain that he didn't understand...I think eventually some of the chat became understandable. I think that was her plan. He is a lot less unnerved by being in a foreign country now.

We went to Versaille and there saw exquisite Macarons Parisien in the patisseries.......check these out

I could be temted away from cheese by these pretties

The back painted glass ceiling of the patisserie...fabulous

Macaron Tarts....how indulgent

Queen Marie Antoinette was dining frequently on these tasty sandwich cookies throughout the entirety of the new Sophia Copolla movie which presumably is why they are alllll over Versaille. The Marchionesse Mad tells us why this is historically incorrect and gives us a bit of histoire and information about the Macaron in this article titled - Food&History: Marie Antoinette and Macarons.

I don't care that she didn't really eat them..it is just deliciously romantic to think she did.

Annie Sloan Activity

I hadn't posted here for a month.. my last post had been brewing for about 2 weeks and and then my poor laptop got sick and had to go to hospital. It came back home all sparkly and working brilliantly with a new battery that lasts hours and doesn't heat up to the point where it burns my legs and a new motherboard ...oh it makes me happy and I can get back to blogging. Soooooooo before I forget the LAST SHABBY CHIC CLASS OF THE SUMMER is on Sunday. Only 2 places left ...class details are HERE or call to book 01764 684324

Antiqued Antibe Coathooks on an Old Ochre Table

All my photos were on here ...I have been dying to show you the last Annie Sloan class.....and other Sloany activity, but could access nothing till the laptop came home.

So...we changed our classes a little...added in a few new things, stencilling, not tweety 80's stencilling of ivy leaves and apples but funky quick stencilling allover patterns that are fun!

Class Samples

and cracking the paint so it looks like leather and decoupage and craqueleure (cracks like on an old plate or like the varnish on an old painting). We still do the two colour distress with antiquing wax and clear and we do a rough distress too. The rough distress is for those pieces that will never look perfect because of the way they have been treated previous. Maybe a piece that had bad paint jobs and the paint is all lumpy and horrid or maybe misuse with lots of dinks and bumps...this finish is perfect for using existing texture to enhance a piece- in this case it has been done in Barcelona Orange which is due to come back into the range really soon (Hooray!!).
Here we are just at the start...thank you Moira of Rustiques our Aberdeenshire stockist for snapping this.

and the prize goes to Moira for the photograph of me looking like I have the biggest bosoms EVER!!!

In this class Moira and Anne from Rustiques and also Eleanor and Margaret from our Edinburgh stockist of Annie Sloan Paint Laurel Gallery and the sister company Pink Pavlova also Helen and Wilma who were our uninititated painters.

We had lovely letters following the class, from Helen -

"I would like to tell you how much I enjoyed the course.  I have painted a couple of pieces, and have plans for many more, but the garden has taken priority lately.  The pieces I have done have come out very well, but more practice is necessary! I'll be on for more colours shortly.

Interestingly, a friend who currently lives in the South of England has also been on a similar course, the xxxxxx & xxxx one.  She was very disappointed with it, all they did was strip & paint a small piece of furniture which they had to take with them. One lady walked out half way through!!  It cost £150.00 for the day.  I felt very smug."

So do we Helen. Thank You!!!!


And Wilma sent me this lovely testimonial that we will use on our website:

"Cait has done wonderful work for me in the past - a ceiling full of cherubs in our romantic holiday home.  It was great fun taking part in one of her courses the other day and I've now got sample paints and can't wait to get painting.  Would highly recommend Carte Blanche courses."

So what have our friends been painting? Check out this delightful occassional table from Pink Pavlova - Eleanor and Margaret have been busy...it is an absolute steal at £40

Pink Pavlova

and what about this lovely piece which Moira from Rustiques completed almost immediately on her return and popped on their Facebook page

Rustiques

She just as quickly sold it so you need to go and visit her shop at Milton of Crathes near Banchory to see more or "Like" her page on Facebook, or keep up with the blog to keep up with what she is doing

And here is Eggshell and Chalk - Gillian is a student of ours from a while back, who is revisiting the class this weekend since we have changed the class since she last came. She has opened "The Bothy" home to her beautiful collection of hand painted furniture and lots of gorgeous vintage homeware. She opens in a "Pop Up!" fashion...running a business, family and being a farmers wife is a little bit of a juggling act so contact her for when she is next going to Pop Up!

Gillian Morris

The Bothy, West Balgersho Farm, Coupar Angus, Perthshire, PH13 9LW

t: 01828 670628 m: 07719920074

Talking of Popping Up....that is what I shall be doing, popping up all over the place.
For those of you that know our studio ....the roof has been leaking for an age and an age and gets worse with every gust of wind and very soon (not sure when yet) we are getting a new roof and the disturbance will be great. It's a big old roof.
On that basis I am not teaching any more formal classes in our studio until the Autumn. So if you want to join this class grab a spot today...as I said 2 places left.


However I shall pop up in Edinburgh (date tbc) to teach with the Laurel Gallery - Phone 0131 226 5022 for more details and I will pop up in Aberdeenshire on the 23rd June to teach with Rustiques 01330 844000.

W are still looking for a stockist of Annie Sloan Paint on the West Coast or in Glasgow, get in touch if you know anyone who might be a passionate painter of pieces!

Mary Poppins of The Paint World

Maintaining an historic home is an onerous task at the best of times. When faced with the devastating effects of dry rot as well, there is sometimes less money in the pot than you would like. Restoring mouldings to their original gilded splendour is an expensive extra item over and above having the plaster mould recreated and fitted. Here we see the original gilded molding and you can see that the majority of the molding was just left in the bole (ground paint for gilding) and only the highlights gilded. This is a technique that used the gold to best effect as from the floor who could tell that only the highlights were gilded and this would have saved a considerable amount of gold.

Original gilded mouldings

Original Gilded Molding

About a 5th of the moulding on this ceiling were replace after dry rot and when I saw it first the client explained that the cost of gilding and returning it to it's original finish could not be covered, and I was asked to come up with a suitable alternative that would blend beautifully with the original. 

Completed Restoration

I was really pleased with the result of some careful research into the best products and I do love to be able to mimic things. This work wasn't carried out by me but by a very talented painter and decorator Les Green who's work is really of the highest nature. I was able to hand him the right product and know that he and his assistant would get a great finish.

Old Joins the New...can you tell where?

One of things I love to do is match ...hadn't you realised LOL...and there was a fair amount of timber to be matched in this room, old pitch pine had been the original and this is impossible to get these days without considerable expense. I had spent months a couple of years back blending new timber into old in a lovely Arts and Crafts home and I brought recipe to this project leaving Les the necessary ingredients to blend successfully. We were also able to compare notes on traditional paperhanging - this wallpaper is a Brunschwig and Fils which is a hand blocked paper from the USA and has a selvedge so every drop had to be hand trimmed. I had the theory and Les had the ability.

I was delighted in the recommendation that this client gave me:

'We were really panicking when part of the Dining Room ceiling collapsed, and with it a section of the decorative plaster work, which was finished in gold leaf.  These Victorian plaster rosettes had had to be replaced and needed to match the gold of the original on the rest of the ceiling. However Cait from Carte Blanche sprang into action and managed to provide us with some gold paint that matched so well with the old gold leaf, that we only had to paint the newly restored part and not the entire ceiling.  She was also really encouraging and helpful to our painter decorator as he struggled to hang our chosen wallpaper which needing trimming, which was complicated by the unusually high ceilings he had to contend with. The Mary Poppins of the Paint Finish World.'

I like that.....

Just before I leave this beautiful room, I must show you my favourite piece....and there are so many beautiful things here that it is hard to choose but I think that many a decorative finisher would love this too. An embossed gilded leather screen in the most exquisite colours.

Decorative Screen

It is always a privilege to be invited into peoples' homes whatever the project but this type of challenge is very satisfying and to even have been a small cog in the process of such a lovely  refurbishment brings a smile indeed.

More Annie Sloan Magic

So it was time to play a bit......we are demonstrating at the Scottish Home Improvement Show in Ingliston Edinburgh this weekend and yup...we are demonstrating Annie Sloan Chalk Paint and why??? Only because it is the best paint IN the WORLD!!! If you want to come and see us get free entry here.

Click Here

So in readiness we have been painting a few things in our beloved paint including this little cabinet...isn't it sweet?

We found this little sweety a long time back on a trip out with our lovely friend Sue van Oldenborgh. She introduced us to Steptoes Yard just outside Montrose which is the most bizarre place piled high and I mean PILED HIGH, everywhere, inside and out with what looks like junk. First impressions aren't everything though hecause in there...there are a fair few gems. This wee cupboard came to us with a really nasty brown on it, chipped and a bit sad looking you could see that at one time it had been a very pretty soft blue green that I really loved so I grabbed the Provence and my waxes and got painting. It was never going to look brand new - too many times it had been painted poorly so I wanted to take advantage of the patina of the old paint, make the brown play to our advantage and. So I quite quickly and roughly popped a coat on leaving it a little patchy so that I could rub back and expose the brown. The brown was horrid in isolation but combined with the Provence looked quite yummy. A little bit of masking tape always helps to give a good crisp look to the interior.

before

A light sand to expose the brown and to make the surface nice and smooth. Then the wax - first clear and then rustic to give it a lovely bit of age and also to dirty up the new screws I had to put in the hinges.

Now Painted in Annie Sloan Provence

The same friend who we bought this with since that time has been training to become an upholsterer and her business has taken off with a bang! She lives in Haarlem just outside Amsterdam and is building up a storm of happy clients and so far hasn't had time to get a website going but is on LinkedIn under Sue van Oldenborgh  if any one out there is looking for a great furniture professional. She sent me pictures of her first Annie Sloan project combined with her fabulous upholstery skills and here are the results. First of all the before -

Sad Before

Happy Elegant French Style

ChiChic Close Up

Sue was for many years an extremely successful graphic designer at the high pressure end and she has a fantastic flair for style and design that she will bring to her new business. She left graphics to get a change of pace but I reckon that she will be so busy soon she won't be able to tell the difference....only this is her own business and that will be what will make it all 100% more satisfying. Let's hope Slapping on the Annie will help her expand her services a little!

So where do you buy it...from us of course! visit the website our online shop! Carte Blanche
This week our stock is low...we have had fantastic sales the past few weeks but we have a big order coming in next week  (delivery due 4th May)
Meantime our Edinburgh stockist has recently been stocked and is ready to supply!!!
The Laurel Gallery is our newist stockist. Based in St Stephen's Street in Stockbridge. A great gallery with a new twist - Annie Sloan Chalk Paint

Annie Sloan Galore!

And our Aberdeenshire sockist Rustiques at Milton of Crathes are selling hand over fist so call before you go....just in case they are out of certain colours, we will be restocking them as soon as we get delivery! Check out their fabulous interiors shop near Crathes Castle ...their blog is fun and their website is coming soon.

Rustiques