Maison Decor

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Shop views and randomness

Since we have come back from our convention with Annie Sloan and company, Justin, Colin and I have been working to revamp and rethink our stores just a bit. Fine tuning if you will~Justin painted my walls a pale aqua blue over the beadboard, switching it out from the lavender. We tweaked and streamlined and prettified things as best we could~hung up a new chandelier or two...

A pretty gothic mirror reflects the fabulous armoire done in

several shades of Chalk Paint with a helping hand from Artisan Enhancements.

How about this dresser~I have been working on this one lately...

We are also getting our spring inventory ready for sale~

look at little Sylvia, Justin's dog peeking at me while I take this shot.

She is a peach! She quietly stays in the shop...although once

she bolted out the door behind Mr. Maison Decor who had

popped in for lunch. Mostly Syl just lays on her bed

and will come over and sniff at the cans of Chalk Paint®

as we work on projects...only a lick and she is done testing it!

Since she looked so cute behind the bistro set I posed

her in front of this antique dresser. I have to add shots

to our online shot and think Syl just might sell it better than I ever could!

But before long the day was over and Justin and Syl

headed for their train ride home. Justin puts her in the

shoulder bag and she just puts her head down and snuggles in for the ride.

Its really adorable and kind of amazing. She doesn't make a peep!

One thing before I go~today I used some foils from Artisan Enhancements

that I was waiting to receive. I loved how this product looked

with the Coco Chalk Paint on the dresser.

Its a very cool product and just one more way to make your

pieces stand out from the rest. I will post on this more later~

but was truly excited and wanted to share. What do you think?

Foil is like an easy mans metallic leaf without the mess and the price.

Lets hear it for that!

All week long Justin and I sent out many custom Mora clocks

including this pretty blue one. We are doing ok after the bombing

at the Marathon and appreciate all the concern and notes

we got letting us know we were not alone. Humanity is normally

not this way, just have to remember that and try not to be discouraged

or afraid. Its stressful and depressing...I found that getting away from

the news and just going into my shop to paint was very helpful....

and thank you for your notes, emails, calls and messages.

Bunting in custom colors using Chalk Paint® dye

Bunting is the decorative flag banners that you see more and more of these days~it was a very British thing that has caught on over here in the US now. It is used to create a festive feeling for parties or special occasions. Annie Sloan's new book, Color Recipes shows some new techniques which I will be teaching at Maison Decor soon~and one of these is using Chalk Paint® decorative paint as fabric dye! In her book she shows how she dyed her Charcoal Pastoral Toile in different shades using Chalk Paint. I decided it would be fun to make a colored bunting in the shades that go with my shop using this new technique. You only need one teaspoon of paint to one quart of water and so this is also a fabulously economical way to dye fabrics! In my recent past life I did tons of custom window treatments so although I am handy with a sewing machine if you can sew a straight line, you too can make your own bunting!

Basically get some fabric and cut out triangles to the size of bunting you want. I had a ten inch wide by ten inch long triangle. I used plain offwhite linen for the backing as I had a bolt on hand. You could cut up a sheet or buy drapery lining for the lining, as well as for the face (front) fabric if you just want plain colors.

After I sewed my fronts and backs together, leaving the tops open,

I turn them right side out. Then it is time to iron them flat.

This shows the stitching~a simple straight stitch about 1/4" in from the end.

Then trim excess fabric from your pointed end so

it won't be bulky when you turn it right side out.

Ironed flat~

I made a bunch of triangles and ironed them all~

Then into the office kitchen sink where I wash my brushes~

I used one quart mixing pails and added one teaspoon

of Provence and Florence to the pails. Whatever color you use,

the end result on the fabric will be muted, so plan accordingly.

I used Provence to get a color like Duck Egg.

Mix it up well~using hotter water I found helped in diluting the

paint into the water. Add a small amount of water first, then the paint,

stir it about, then add the rest of the water. If you want to

dye sheets or slipcovers use about 2 teaspoons per gallon.

Do it in the bathtub for bigger batches.

Dip your pieces into the pails. Poke them down and

let them sit in the water for about 5 minutes.

That's all the time you need to dye your fabrics!!

Quick and Easy!!! Woo hoo!!!

Here are the Florence triangles all dyed...I rinsed off the triangles as I took them out of the pails, but Annie said you don't have to rinse. Annie also told me that she did a test with the same dyed fabric sample and put one through the washing machine after dying and she could not tell the difference between the unwashed sample and the one that got washed! I saw them at our Stockist conference and I was amazed!! I laid the triangles out on old towels and you will get some dye spreading on your surface, so plan for that.

Then I decided to dye some in Henrietta!

Here are my bunting penants drying....

After they dried, I laid them out in sequence

of how I wanted to stitch them into a garland banner.

I rolled out my bolt of linen and cut a 2.5" strip of fabric about

10 inches longer on each side than the row of bunting flags.

I ironed the strip by turning the edges towards the middle to

create a channel where the unsewn tops of the bunting flags would

get attached and covered up for a finished result. You can buy

this kind of fabric strip already made up in different colors if you

don't want to make your own. It is called Bias Tape and can be

found at fabric stores. You could also make it out of the face fabric as well.

A closeup of the channel I created by ironing the edges towards the inside.

Place the flags inside the channel and stitch a straight line!

This is the exciting part!!! The bunting is finished and ready to hang!

Chalk Paint party anyone??

My Annie Fix in New Orleans

Amy Chalmers and Annie Sloan

New Orleans April 2013

Well it was more than I hoped for~once a year the stockists convene in New Orleans, Louisiana for a four day event to come together with Annie Sloan and our American CEO Lisa Rickert of Annie Sloan Unfolded. This would be my first time attending and I brought my son Justin along for the experience. It was fun to be sure, but on top of that I learned so much about my business and the Annie brand. Justin and I made new friends~including our favorites which came from out of the country~the European stockists. But no one is more special to me than Annie herself. I adore her. Adore her in the way that I love all she stands for, all she is and how she lives her life~now in the middle of a huge boom in popularity in the USA, she continues to provide inspiration, real connection and support to the little people that have their independent shops selling her fabulous Chalk Paint®. This montage was taken with me holding my iPhone. Justin and I were coming in from a dinner out in the city and we were beckoned back to the hotel by our french friend Claire Chalkley. As we strolled up to the hotel Annie was outside with the pack of Brits (as we called them). One of the seminars involved photography and I joked to her let me practice my new skills by capturing us together. The always affable Annie indulged me, and this is one of my favorite keepsakes from the trip. We spent another two hours chatting away in the midnight hours and until we dutifully went to bed to get ready for an

other day of seminars, luncheons and dinners. There were many special times in store ahead.

After a scavenger hunt on Royal Street which is the fancy

antique shop and art gallery, we were treated to a

fancy dinner event at a museum where we grabbed another photo with Annie.

Justin was enamored with this lady and

I was so glad he got to meet the lady behind the paint.

This is what greeted us as we entered the ballroom for our registration and classes.

Bits of Annie were everywhere in a stylish way~

We had days of classes and learning cool stuff which will unfold over time

right here on the blog.

Claire and I were busy taking a few pics and scribbling notes furiously.

Justin was pretty camera shy so that's why you don't see much of him.

Anyway Annie and her son Felix were delivering big time~

Much of it is covered in Annie's new book~like this

new amazing thing you can do with Chalk Paint®....

you can die fabrics!!! Oh yeah~its true, I will have

a very cool project coming up next week

showing how to do this for yourself.

This grainy pic shows her black and white toile and how it looks after

being dyed with different colors in her palette.

They were truly soft and beautiful and color fast.

At any rate, after the last class Annie signed books for the stockists~

I felt bad she had to sign so many so I didn't get mine signed~I had

a lot more of Annie that came home with me and it was plenty!

yup, its a line...

After the books were signed we off outside to the

cobblestone plaza to be wined and dined yet again,

courtesy of our boss Lisa Rickert!

Here is Lisa running the show with the hotel catering and hospitality staff.

I thought it was so amazing~ this young diminutive blonde power house

running a big successful company and doing it with aplomb!

First class treatment all the way~it was incredible!!

The food and entertainment and event planning was second to none.

Lisa made sure we all felt appreciated and really special.

So the last official party began at the bar of course~

Justin chatted up the amiable bar staff.

Food stations were dotted around the courtyard~

Louisiana style cooking!!

The Crawfish Alfredo was marvelous!

In one corner of the courtyard was a small brocante set up by the European stockists.

Brocante is a flea market~they brought vintage treasures to sell to us and we wiped them out!

We bought vintage linen frocks from Annie's table~this is Lizzie Brown.

Lizzie is Annie's son Felix's girlfriend and together they work in Annie's company.

They did a few presentations, which really struck home with me and Justin.

Here is our new dear friend Claire, from France.

You will be hearing more about Claire as we have struck up

quite a friendship that was both natural and alarming!! hah!

I may be visiting Claire soon and reporting back to you all from France!

Justin shows off the mail sack we bought from Claire~

this with our linen frocks will be used in store displays at Maison Decor~

as well as serving as memories from a special moment in time.

The eating and drinking continued out in the courtyard until a brisk

wind blew us all back up to the ballroom where we

unraveled into frenzied dancing and partying!!

It was a chance to get down and let loose

and we took notes from our fearless leader Annie.

The night was winding down~

Annie would be packing up and leaving soon as would we all...

So long for now New Orleans~

you might just have claimed the title to being the

City of Light

for this one night.

The next day we said goodbye in the hotel lobby~

goodbye Annie!~goodbye Claire!

(Did you know Claire is a florist and did

all the beautiful flowers in Annie's new book?)

But that is not the last chapter...no, not at all.

Next time I blog I will take you to the

most incredible antique French antique shop!!

How can you resist windows like this?

And interiors that dazzle like this???

I'll take you there next time~

Back in town~!

Maison Decor Boston

This is a quick note to update you all that Justin and I have returned from our Annie Sloan meet up in New Orleans! I have a lot to share with you all and will need to sit down and get my photos loaded and edited so I can show you some of the incredible stuff we saw and did down south. Our visit with Annie and company was more than I hoped for~and it made both of us feel reinvigorated to return to our shops and get things fired up! We touched down Friday night in Boston around 9 pm, and by the end of workday Saturday Justin, Colin and I did a store revamp in Boston. This is one of the vignettes we created based around these super cool leather recliners I got at auction. Boston has Sunday hours of 11-4 and it is our busiest day for customers~with good reason: there is a large vintage market right next doors to our store so we get the benefit of that traffic. Our cozy little shop is a great place to find bargains and cool unique stuff as well and we are starting to be known for that as more of the neighborhood discovers us.