Customizing your colors using Chalk Paint

Custom color mixing

courtesy of AnnieSloan.com

Of course I paint many pieces straight out of the can, but when 

I want to create a customized color for a piece

of furniture I mix my own recipe.

Before we get to that I wanted to share

the red table above from the Annie Sloan website~

this is also a way to get a custom look using Chalk Paint

by applying soft dark wax after you apply the clear wax.

Dark wax can dramatically change the appearance 

of Chalk Paint.  Experiment with the changes by using it

on a wood sample to see the effect of the dark wax over clear wax.

One of my favorite colors to use the dark wax on is Antoinette.

Pale ballet pink Antoinette turns into a sophisticated antiqued pink!

I often use gilding wax with this combination to finish my pieces.

courtesy of Anniesloan.com

 You can easily mix your choice of Annie Sloan™

colors with Old White or Pure White to get a range of colors

as shown in this example from Annie's website.

The starter color is Emperor's Silk, a bright fire engine red.

Adding Old White will make your colors more vintage,

and Pure White gives a modern look.

Annie shows ratios of paint mixed above

in 1:1, 1:2, 1:3, and 1:4 with the largest

swatch being the 1 part red 4 parts white.

Using this simple method of mixing whites with colors

gives you a much greater choice when deciding which 

paint color is best for a project.

You can also mix colors with colors~not just colors with whites.

 Check this out~I recently mixed up a custom color 

for the shop walls in Boston using Paris Grey and Chateau Grey. 

Using equal parts of both I created a beautiful grey green shade.

 I eyeball my measurements and mix enough to finish the job. 

 Using these quart containers that have measured markings you 

can easily do this too. After pouring in the Paris Grey

 I poured Chateau Grey right on top of it.

Then I stirred it all up creating my own recipe.

The wall in progress with my recipe color.

I will be sharing more custom color recipes and techniques

with you right here on the blog.  I hope this inspires you

to think outside the box and get mixing up your colors~

and visit AnnieSloan.com for all kinds of color ranges

by clicking on the color swatch you like.

Annie shows how it looks mixed up with whites

and gives tips on complementary colors as well.