My new crush!

A couple of years ago I heard about this allegedly awesome new paint out on the market. It was from England, the creation of some woman who decided she could do better than the latex options that were out there. It was taking the decorative painting world by storm. If you were going for "shabby chic", it was The Paint.

So, when a local boutique started carrying Annie Sloan's Chalk Paint last year it was a pretty big deal. There was only one other shop in the state that was stocking it. The whole state! Of course, I had to buy a can. One can of paint in the color Provence, and a can of clear wax. Done.

Then a year went by.

I bought furniture to paint, but I didn't seem to find time space motivation to actually put paint on any of it. Weird, huh? I'm not going to delve into the mental blocks that may have been in place that were keeping me from being as creative in 2012 as I should have been. You don't care anyway, right? You just want to see the pictures! So let's get to it!!

I found this sweet little table at an auction last fall, and paid a little more than I probably should have, but I knew it would be adorable with some chalk paint on it. Sometime last fall I also bought two more cans of paint, and a can of dark wax. So I was ready to go. (Pretend the top is still unpainted... I got excited and forgot to take a good "before" photo.)

  

I put a coat of Versailles on the whole thing and let it dry, then I watched a couple of videos on how to use the paint... because that's the way I roll. ;) After watching the videos, I decided to go back over it with a little more paint and add a little texture for the wax to dig into. 

 

Once the clear wax had cured a little (It only took ten minutes or so.) I added a coat of dark wax, very lightly, and started rubbing it in as well, to antique it. Here's the top with half of it antiqued...

 

Then when the dark wax was done, I sanded a bit along some of the edges. It's such a precious little piece, I didn't want to rough it up too much. It's classy, not a street tramp I picked up off a curb. Once the sanding was done, I just went over those spots again with a little clear wax, and voila! I literally squealed. I was so pleased with the result and kind of amazed at how easy it was. 

What do you think? 

I'm kind of in love. :) And now, nothing in my house is safe... painting will be happening!!