Back to work~gilding and glazing light fixtures!

My little pink swing sitting in the snow~

Well the blizzard of 2013 is officially over, yet the roads remain a mess making it hard to get anywhere.

The city of Boston still has yet to open the schools and life is not as easy as it was just a week ago.

But Maison Decor is back in business~we lost Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday.  However 

I am happy to report we are back here at work, and it feels great!

Since Justin was staying at our house due to the blizzard we managed to get in 

a day of work yesterday, Monday,  which is a day we are closed.  I had some

custom paint jobs on light fixtures so we decided to tackle the huge brass chandy together.

Justin and I worked together painting all the details of this chandelier as it dangled at

a nice height from a ceiling hook.  This is the best way to paint a chandy. You can rotate

it and get under it and we used a ladder to get up to the higher parts.  There were so many

details that needed to be covered and we used different size brushes to get at them.

Finally we had finished the first coat of French Linen Chalk Paint®.

It would get another coat too~

Then our magic metallic glaze in German Silver was applied.

This is one of the techniques you can learn in our Advanced Workshop.

I have decided to teach this class every other month.

Whenever anyone sees this they love it and want to know how to 

create it!! Even other "professionals" ask me how to get this effect.

Are you interested in learning how?

My first class for glazes and washes is this Sunday  with 3 spots open.

The other light fixture I worked on was this~

You can see the bright brass finish on the left, and the new finish on the right.

This technique is done in the same manner with Chalk Paint and Glazing.

Change out the brass look in a flash!

On my way to work this morning I couldn't resist buying some flowers to 

create a bouquet to counteract the winter dreariness.

Of course I had to buy a few separate stems to create what I wanted,

as I am in love with Hydrangeas and Roses in pink 

(there are roses on the other side)

Pretty isn't it?

  I love a simple bouquet~and need to treat myself more often~!

Hope you are good to yourself this Valentines day and make sure

you tell the ones you love how you feel about them.

I'll be teaching the Advanced Workshop on Glazes and Washes

this Sunday~sign up here.

Read more »

This and that and Advanced Workshop schedule

 Our Boston store has a new display in the window.  Justin channeled a bit of Ralph Lauren for this one...while I was in the auction house he texted me his idea and so I shopped for a few items to add to his display.  All of these items are for sale of course.  I love coming into the Boston shop to see what's new as I rarely get to spend any time in here.  Last Saturday when the Malden shop closed, Colin and I took a ride into Boston with a few new items to add to Justin's inventory.  I couldn't resist snapping a few pics to share them with you.

 Gothic gilded mirror leaning against a great painted dresser with fab knobs.

                           A low chest perfect for a flat screen console~

 Some hand painted mugs~

Justin makes the coolest little signs and 

he displays them in white piglets.  Love his hand lettered font.

 While I am just snapping away Colin sat with Sylvia, Justin's schnoodle. She is our Boston mascot and is just a little puppy with a darling disposition.  Justin was at the gym next door working out after hours when Colin and I popped into the store late Saturday afternoon.  Little Syl was just sitting on her tiny dog bed and was so sweet! Colin scooped her up while I ran around the store grabbing a few photos.

 

Colin and Sylvia

 When we got back home Colin showered and got ready to go out with his friends~I had never seen his shirt before...it had the breast cancer pink ribbon thing on the button placket. I asked him where he got it~he told me he ordered it from a fancy shirt company and said that 20% went to breast cancer research. His friends thought it was pretty cool and they got the black polo shirts too.  The girls they meet at the nightclubs think its pretty sensitive of a guy to care about breast cancer.  Colin is just a handsome young man who actually does think about such things. I don't know how we got so lucky with him! He is a pleasure~ok, enough bragging on him...

 I finally got the Maison Decor Advance Workshop schedule started and I have decided to do it in a monthly series. One special workshop per month will be offered.  I added a Glazes and Washes class for February 17 and an Artisan Technique class for March 24 which will be all about the Pearl Plaster and other products.  At the end of this month I am headed to Colorado to spend  5 days with one of the creators of the product and I will get some one on one training time from the master of these wonderful and exciting products!  Of course I will still have my Annie Sloan Introductory workshops, two times every month. March 10 has SOLD OUT and March 17 has only 5 spots left.  Please sign up if you are considering it, as they will be gone probably by the end of the week.

 This table leg bears a smokey wash and a gilded wash...

And last but not least~

Thats my mom on the right in 1969.  She looks pretty chic in her tight bob and cats eye glasses and empire waisted shift!  She is standing next to my Nana, and then next to Nana is my aunt Cynthia, my mom's youngest sister and my Uncle Arthur. They have 2 boys and 2 girls.  Very sadly Aunt Cynthia died of melanoma when she was only 49 years of age. We miss her.  I think everybody agreed she was the prettiest out of the 5 daughters and had a matching personality to boot!  Uncle Arthur is one of my favorite uncles~he is that dashing kind of guy, tall and handsome and got charisma in spades.  When he walked in a room, he just lit it up!  Now he is plagued with an undiagnosed condition and the doctors are busy trying to figure it all out and find out how to treat him.  So if you are inclined, please add him to your prayer list. 

Hang in there Uncle Art! We love you and are pulling for you.

Read more »

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.

Read more »

Painted Pink Inspiration

source

A lovely painted Swedish built in bed.

To replicate this color I would mix Scandinavian Pink and Antoinette 

with some Old White and apply in various layers 

with wash and ragging techniques.

source

Pinky peach walls over taupe wainscoting with lots of gilt

The lighthearted pink is grounded by the taupe and the golden accessories

stand out nicely against the pink.  

I recently washed one part of a wall in my shop and it 

was so easy and fun to do. The more I added water and ragged it off

the lighter an airier it became. 

If you want to get a hand painted european plaster look

with ease try applying Chalk Paint® and water 

and use a brush and damp rag for spectacular results!

My ragged wall in Scandinavian Pink, Antoinette and Pure White.

In person it looks a lot lighter~but this closeup shows the unevenness 

of paint application.  Perfection is NOT the rule.

Add more Old or Pure White for a lighter look as well as more water~

this works well with white walls as the under color of the wall

will reveal itself as you rag it off. If you are covering up

the wall color you will need to rag off less paint, or let a

 first coat dry then apply a second coat of a lighter or darker shade.

I loved doing this treatment and plan to do other sections of the shop

in neutral tones using French Linen and Old Ochre.

source

When painting furniture many times I look for design 

inspiration and come across beautiful things like this 

stunning blue and pink armoire. 

source

Beautiful crusted pink doors with touches of white in the

nooks and crevices.  Such inspiration!

source

This is my own mirror that I painted pink once upon a time.

As I redecorated the room it would no longer remain pink,

but it will always be one of my favorites.

source unknown

If I wanted to copy this chest I would use Antoinette Chalk Paint®

with a little Old White and plenty of French Gilding wax.

source unknown

One project I hope to tackle someday is creating this look~

 paneled walls with decorative molding. You can buy kits

to make these walls, at a pretty price I am sure. But think of 

how gorgeous it would be in the right setting~

source

Another paneled wall sets the stage for this palest pink bed.

One fabulous mirror and the room is done.

I would replace the thousand tiny pillows with a few larger

down filled pillows in cut linen velvet or grain sack.

 Most of these projects can be done with successfully

with Chalk Paint® and some require gilding materials.

 Shopping list: 

Antoinette Chalk Paint and French Gilding Wax in King Gold

Many of these projects just need these items.

Pink has always been a color close to my heart~

a long time ago I painted my first house. 

 Myself.  In pink.

I bought Sears Weather Beater paint in the 1980s 

and took it back 3 times to have the color adjusted

to just the right shade of pink.

My old house no longer is pink~

the people I sold it to painted it yellow. 

I can't say I blame them, pink is not for everyone, 

but it sure is for me! 

And I think it suited this little cottage nicely.

Add a little pink to your life with a painted cabinet

or just do the interior of a bookcase or armoire~

 add a lot by doing your walls and furnishings in ballet pink.

As always, I am looking for inspiration to share here with you.

Have a great week! 

And think PINK!

  

Read more »

Turquoise and Gold Inspiration!

With the start of the New Year I was looking for a little

inspiration for my shop and I came across this page in 

Selina Lake's Romantic Style book, one of my favorites.

I keep some decorating books around the shop for people to flip

through for inspiration and I often look through them myself.

So I left the book open to this page, but not before I called Colin

over to show him this room and mention that I loved the look

and style of this room~that I wished our shop had a bit more of this 

feeling to it.....he agreed with me, as he is an affable sort!

I had a meeting with my picker, Rebecca, scheduled for later in the day.

In the meantime Colin and I wanted to move things around 

and get the shop layout to function better for our

workshops as well as to make an effort to spruce things up

a bit after the hubbub that the year end activity had left the shop

in a bit of disarray.  Lots of clocks were painted and shipped out,

as well as books and gifts and furniture pieces being made over~

all in all the store had lost a bit of its mojo.

So this photo gave me a clear head and some direction.

 Rebecca came by and had a bunch of pretty things that I bought for the shop~
to include more mirrors and this pair of candelabras~she said they came out of a Catholic church and were from the Victorian era. They were enormous at 30" tall, and once the tapers are added they will be three feet tall at least! I had to have them~so decorative featuring wheat shafts, grapes and grapevine leaves, and lilies entwine the 5 candle holders.  Colin was busy stringing some bistro lights across the shop as Justin had done in Boston (below) with great results.

While Colin strung lights, I got busy mixing up a turquoise paint color out of Chalk Paint by mixing Florence, Provence and Pure White for a stunning blue. Our long french dining table sits in the middle of the room and when not used for workshops we cover it and use it for the painting projects like mora clocks and the mirror you can see below.  We planned to move the monster armoire to the end of the shop as it makes passage around the workshop table difficult during workshops.  I wanted to place it at the very back end of the shop behind my desk.  Problem was it weighed eight thousand pounds, and Mr. Maison Decor has had a sore back, so it was left to Colin and me to figure it out.

We would have to figure it out~but in the meantime I had that 

inspirational photo in my head and I just had to create!! 

 I have written more than once on my affection for the French gilding wax
that I sell....I just cannot tell you how important it is in many of my projects,
taking the nice enough finished result to a higher level!  I just touch a finger tip into the pot and then spread it on the surface I wish to gild. Its simple and fast with amazing results.

This is the custom turquoise blue I mixed up for the mirror.

I painted the entire thing with this blue. Then I added a watery layer of Versailles over the blue, except in the paneled area of the Trumeau.

After that, I applied clear and dark to the entire mirror frame.

Now it was time to bring it to life.

Pot of Gold!!

 Here is a rough pic of the mirror all finished~I will be adding mirror hardware to the back of it and hanging it today and will update the blog with a beauty shot as this photo doesn't do it justice. Its four feet long and huge.

 Below is a pic of the before sent to me by Rebecca.

The Trumeau mirror has a worn out wood frame with a bit of water damage and crackling, and the center piece has gold paint on it...less than stellar. I knew there were a few ways I could have taken this mirror~like a beautiful French Linen and gilding wax...but I wanted to go for that rich turquoise and gold look.

 I worked the same routine on another 4 foot wide sofa mirror she brought me which had also seen better days~its got an enchanting Bohemian quality now.

The gilding wax just picks up the high points of carved decoration and it is incredibly easy to get a masterful result just with a finger tip application.
After the mirrors were finished I went back to look at the inspiration photo~
and much to my surprise I saw something unexpected in the photo.

Ahhh, I love this turqouise and gold...but look!
There on the mantle!!

 A candlestick practically identical to the ones I just bought from Rebecca!

 Mine had the same three elements of wheat, grapes, and lilies! They also held five candles! Woah! It was like the law of attraction from the Universe had come into play at Maison Decor! At least that is what I believe.

 This was a mind blower~I had never ever seen candlesticks like this....and two hours after saying I wanted the shop to look like the image in the book, this very accessory walked through the front door. Amazing.
Does this kind of thing ever happen to you? Have you experience the law of attraction?  I'll say its not the first time this has happened to me, but each time it continues to amaze me.

Yesterday we had the most productive day! We painted and strung lights, and even got all the furniture moved around in the shop!! I will be sharing the entire thing with beauty shots tomorrow~the workshops are coming and I can't wait! I'll be teaching ten ladies on Sunday and then ten more two weeks later! If you wonder what you can expect in a Introductory Workshop I am planning a blog post that goes through it with a bit more detail.  Its four hours of action packed learning and tips and insider info that will put you in the Chalk Paint driver seat.

For more information on the Gilding wax, click here.

Read more »