Maison Decor has floor sized Mora Clocks!

 Earlier I hinted at a big surprise I had for you~

its no surprise how much I love the mora clock, 

so you must know I  was super excited to finally

 get the floor sized reproduction for my shop!

 The floor size model is very similar to the wall model with a few differences. Its much deeper 

at 9" deep to the wall model's 3" depth. Its also a lot taller at over six feet tall coming in at 75.5".

It has an antiqued mirror in the pendulum hole, which the wall mora does not.

These wall moras are in distressed Old White and Faded Louis Blue. 

All are finished with an antique glaze to give them a worn and aged look.

 I am in love with this big guy! Its as big as a person!!

I have two out in the shop right now

that customers have already purchased from my online shop, 

so I have been busy getting them painted and glazed.

They have a  pretty simple country shape from the  scalloped base to the crown.

 This mora, like the wall clock,  runs on one AA battery and is silent so you won't hear 

that tick tick ticking that can drive you insane...(some one asked and it is important to know!)

The clock above is painted in Paris Grey with antique glaze.

The antiqued mirror inside the pendulum area~

The Old White clock is next~I'll be antiquing her tomorrow and then sending her 

along to her new home.  The floor clock will also be available in faded Louis Blue as 

seen above on the wall Mora. As soon as I get it finished I'll share it with you.

So that was my big surprise!! Big moras!  Valentines Day 

will be coming up in two weeks....I hope to do some

 Romantic blog posts about decorating this month.

  Maybe that means an antique pink mora?

Shop for Mora clocks here.

Painting a Brass Chandelier!

                                                                                                                                                             

 A vintage brass chandelier had seen better days...

I had a little plan to makeover this light fixture.

It involved some painting with Chalk Paint® by Annie Sloan in Graphite...

 The Chalk Paint® sticks nicely to the brass without any prepwork. 

After doing one coat over the chandy I moved to the next step....

 I wisked some French Linen Chalk Paint® across most of the Graphite.

 Then I used my magic potion...Pearl Plaster!

 I brushed the Pearl Plaster over the painted finish and

 made it heavy and crusty in some areas and sheer in others.

Finished up with a little dark wax and now it has a a whole new look!

Something kind of hand forged looking....

Some black candle covers and this baby is good to go!

So consider Chalk Paint® for your brass pieces and add

a little Pearl Plaster for that shimmery but not sparkly look.

On a side note, Colin has been coming home on the weekends to help

out at the store~here he is painting a cottage dresser in Old White.

I have been getting lots of  compliments on him and how well

he is doing when I have to step out of the shop. 

So thank you to those who have let me know he is a pleasure and is 

so helpful and full of information.

Hope to see you in the shop!

We are located at 

150 Main Street Reading Mass

781-942-7400

Shop online for Chalk Paint® and Pearl Plaster here.

Custom color candles in two minutes!

 I used to be a white candle only person...I think I read somewhere it was

a design no no to use colored candles.  I am so glad I don't have to follow 

all the rules anymore..."cause I am all grown up and I have my own ideas!

Well maybe my ideas are greatly influenced by what I see in books and on

beautiful blogs~but at any rate I had in mind a set of ten bright pink candles for 

these antique candelabra.  The last time I wanted a certain color candle I went online

and ordered some in turquoise from a very expensive store~and they were perfect.

Since I needed ten candles for a store display this time I went to TJMaxx looking

for a boxed set of pink candles...but the only color candles were neutrals.

So I bought two boxes at $7.99 each and headed to the shop~as I 

was driving it occurred to me that I could try painting them with Chalk Paint!!
I was all excited thinking this could really be a great thing if it worked~

Selina Lake's book Romantic Style has room after

 romantic room and many of them use brightly colored tapers

in the antique candle holders and candelabras, like this one in hot pink.

Here is another photo of a candelabra similar to mine and

 there are two shades of a chartreuse green candle.

I love the funky spunky look of the bright candles with the antique fixture.

So I got to mixing up my pink paint~

I used about 3 parts Pure White to 1 part Emperor's Silk.

You can see the fleshy colored tapers laying in wait...

The first candle gets a quick one coat paint job....

I held it by the wick and then zapped it with the hair dryer

 to hasten the drying.  I wanted to light it to see if anything bad would happen~

It appeared this was going to work!
But after an extended period they start throwing a smokey trail.
What a bummer!
So use these for decorative purposes only please!

Then I painted the next 9 candles all with one coat 

and stuck them in water bottles.

Maybe you can stick them in something else, but I had all these 

empties from my last Paint Workshop and they were just the right size!  

The next thing I did was to take one out at a time and do a 

quick second coat followed by a hairdryer blast

 for a minute or two and they were finished!!

I was so pleased with the finished result~I had the 

bubble gum pink candles I wanted for just pennies!!

Think of all the colors you can make with your candles~

plum,  aqua bright orange!! Just look at the Annie Sloan paint chart!

My candelabras were looking swell~
For decorative purposes~not meant for burning!

I knew the pink candles would totally make that vanity top pop!

Now all I have to do is paint the vanity.

How far does a sample size of Chalk Paint® go? and other cool stuff...

How far does a sample go?

 I get asked this question alot...people want to know how

 big a piece they can paint with a sample size of 

Chalk Paint® decorative paint by Annie Sloan.  

This small chest took an entire sample~and that is two coats of coverage.

Its about 24" x 12" x 16" in size.

I painted it in Emile, a purple color and it looked like this below~

 Cute but I wanted to make it a bit more of a grown up purple~

 So I  did a Graphite wash~

 Washing is like making a glaze out of Chalk Paint® and water.

 I just use a very wet brush and dip into the paint~

 Then rag it off~

 And it finally looks how I want it to look~a smokey purple.

Colin snapped me in action...anyday of the week you can 

walk into Maison Decor and see me working on something...

we love having this huge table set up so our projects are on

 display as well as its a great spot to pull out samples and mix up

 custom colors for my customers right on the spot. 

Today the table looks just like this...no artful rearranging was done! ha!

But you can see the variety of cool samples done with dark waxes and special techniques

as well as a big sketch pad where I will mix up a color Johnny on the Spot!

Our Malden location has developed into more of an Art Studio. 

 Painting is our number one priority!  We love inspiring our 

customers to try new things based on what they will see in our shop~

and at the Boston location you will see Justin doing the same thing.

  He does so much custom paint work now because people have 

walked through the doors and watched him working on a piece.

Justin broke out some Antibes and created this very funky piece~

we both want to use some of the bolder colors to show the range

 of Annie Sloan and her wonderful Chalk Paint® palette. 

Both of our colorful pieces in Emile and Antibes are priced under $150~

fun pieces that will add loads of personality to a space. 

What a great little bar table this would make~glasses underneath 

with bottles on a tray on the top!  Or just a great hall table in your 

city condo with a place to toss your keys 

when you walk through the door at night.

Of course you will always find antique pieces with classic style

 in our Boston store too~like this vintage pair of Black and gold stencil back splats 

with fantastic cane seating in great shape. 

 I would flank the Antibes table with this pair for 

a dashing combo of funky and traditional. 

Anyway, back to my original topic~

expect to finish one chair or one small end table with a sample size.

We stock every color in sample sizes so if you want 

to experiment this might be your best option. 

Hope to see you someday soon in one of our shops~

We will be happy to help you find the

 right color for your next project!

My living room

 Its been awhile since I posted on my living room~

I have a new old coffee table now. 

Kind of like a tea table I guess~its tall

and its handpainted and very old and I love it!

 All kinds of little scenes and floral bits are

 painted freely around the top and the legs~

 The main color is blue, and its got that feminine french style that I love.

 Betsy Speert told me to put myneedlepoint stool underneath 

it as there was too much of a blank space there and she was so right!

 So this country table is my newest favorite thing~

 I don't add much anymore to the house as I am so

 busy with the store, so this little addition

 just made me all excited about the room again.

 This Paris Grey Mora reproduction was just finished and I told a customer I would 

photograph it so she could make a decision~

I decided to bring it home and show how it looks

in a fairly neutral setting~

 So here is the Paris Grey clock on my wall~

compare it to the pale Louis Blue one below.

 Hope that helps her make up her mind a little easier~

 Dillon is recovering from a torn ACL and he had serious surgery

 is now on the mend.  He loves to sit in front of the fireplace

 to warm himself. He is a darling and we

 have been nervous wrecks about him!

My living room with the new old table. Nice, huh?
PS~My walls are painted 
Benjamin Moore color #1515 Natural Elements
but its made up in the Valspar Signature paint formula from Lowes.