Colour Recipes for Painted Furniture E-Book

Annie Sloan

• Herausgeber: Ryland Peters & Small
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2013

Beschreibung

With this book in one hand and a brush in the other, you can learn how to transform everyday furniture into something special, all for the price of a pot of paint. Annie Sloan is a paint legend and one of the world's most popular experts in the field of decorative painting. In Colour Recipes for Painted Furniture and more, Annie presents 40 new projects and ideas, showing you the easy way to update tired furniture and transform your home. Working with her own range of chalk paints, Annie shows how to mix colours and how to achieve certain looks. Whether your taste is for colourful boho chic or restrained Swedish hues, cosy and comforting rustic shades, a modern and contemporary approach or an elegant French look, here you will find a project to suit you. Start off by mastering the simple art of colourwashing, and work your way up to transfer printing, gilding, stencilling and glazing. There are even instructions for dyeing fabric using paint. As well as painting furniture, the projects range from a staircase painted in a rainbow of colours to stencilled walls, transforming floors with a coat of paint to dyeing linen curtains and even painting a vintage chandelier. Throughout the book, Annie offers expert tips, techniques, shortcuts and guidance, showing you the easy way to create a stylish home.

Leseprobe

COLOUR RECIPESFOR PAINTED FURNITURE

AND MORE

COLOUR RECIPESFOR PAINTED FURNITURE

AND MORE

40 STEP-BY-STEP PROJECTS TO TRANSFORM YOUR HOME

ANNIE SLOAN

Published in 2013 by CICO Books

An imprint of Ryland Peters & Small Ltd

20–21 Jockey’s Fields, London WC1R 4BW

www.rylandpeters.com

20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12

Text © Annie Sloan 2013

Design and photography © CICO Books 2013

The author’s moral rights have been asserted. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

The Chalk Paint trademark is owned by Annie Sloan Interiors Ltd. and is registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

eISBN 978 1 78249 501 7

ISBN 978 1 782490 32 6

Managing editor: Gillian Haslam Copy editor: Helen Ridge Designer: Christine Wood Photographer: Christopher Drake

contents

Introduction

Tools and materials

Chapter 1: Working with Paint Colors

Chapter 2: French Style

Gilded Rococo Chair

Distressed Armoire

Dyeing Fabric with Paint

Wax-resist Bed

Chipped Paint Cabinets

Gilded Mirror

Transfer Image

Painted Lamp Bases

Chapter 3: Boho Chic

Painted and Gilded Bed

Mixing a Color

Painted Fabric Chair

Copper Leaf Bath

Painted Chandelier

Printed Cabinet

Incised Painted Cabinet

Decoupage Sideboard

Chapter 4: Swedish Style

Painted Panel Wall

Textured Staircase

Stenciled Wall

Dry-painted Armoire

Frottage Door

Swedish Rustic Table

Painted Floor

Painted Dresser

Wall Sconce

Faux Marble Tabletop

Chapter 5: Country

Sanded Kitchen Chairs

Painted Teak Table

Painting Rough Walls

Rustic Washed Table

Ceiling and Rafters

Limed Oak Look

Chapter 6: Modern Contemporary

Striped Stairs

Smooth and Shiny Bureau

Modern Stripes

Painted Rug

Hot and Clashing Colors

Typographical Chest of Drawers

Painted Contemporary Chair

Monoprint Table

Index

Acknowledgments

Useful Addresses

introduction

Over the years I have written many books, but this one is very personal as it charts the renovation of our farmhouse in northern France. Although we have owned the property for more than 20 years, over the past 12 months we have extended the house and redecorated throughout. This has given me a wonderful opportunity to experiment with new techniques (such as using my paint to dye fabrics) and the perfect excuse to buy more furniture from local markets and village fairs.

We chose the house because it is easy to get to from our home in Oxford. It takes an hour to reach the port on the south coast of England, and from there we catch the “midnight” ferry. After sleeping overnight on-board, we arrive in France in the early morning, with just another hour’s drive ahead of us. The house is situated in the middle of the green and rolling Normandy countryside, an area renowned for its milk and cream, from the famous Normandy cows, and also for its apples.

The farmhouse, built from stones with cob (mud and straw) walls, has other outbuildings which we currently use as storage. I particularly love this old oak door, and am planning to restore and reinstate the old fence.

The country kitchen is next to the Swedish-style room, so it was important to make certain that the styles flowed easily. I have taken a color from one room and used it in the next.

There are orchards everywhere, and cider and calvados, the delicious apple brandy, are produced in abundance.

The house started as a retreat for the whole family, where the children could run about and do as they liked. We stayed there every summer, spending our days on the nearby beaches or in the surrounding countryside. The children played in the fields of tall maize and rode their bikes along the empty roads. They searched for glowworms, played in the tiny stream, made hideouts in the attics and sheds, and generally had a good time. We spent Christmases there, too, and even though it was very cold, we would soon warm up sitting by the big log fire and have tremendous fun.

The house is old. One of the beams in the kitchen has the date 1776 carved into the wood, although parts of the building may actually be older than that. On the ground floor, the walls are made of stone, with mud walls above, which was the traditional way to build houses all over Britain and Europe. The previous owners had tried their hand at modernization, and we spent ages removing the hardboard and plastic they had used to cover the ancient wooden beams, as well as scraping green gloss paint from the walls.

Carved into one of the ceiling beams in the kitchen is the date 1776, the year that America gained her independence from Britain. Although this is a great age in itself, some parts of the house may be even older.

All the furniture in this bedroom has been bought in France, although I see similar pieces all over the world. Scouring flea markets and visiting secondhand furniture stores for pieces to paint is great fun, and I'll continue to do this with the emphasis now on searching for paintings, prints, and the finishing touches.

As the house is located in the heart of the French countryside, I chose to decorate it in a predominantly French rustic style. But, as you would imagine, I have also included other influences that continue to inspire me. When I decorate a room, I start with one large item of furniture as the pivotal piece against which everything else is measured. Smaller pieces are then added as I find them and the rooms are constantly evolving. I dress a room until it feels right, which is why you may notice curtains hanging at a window in one photograph but in another shot of the same room there are none.

I have divided the book into six chapters, with the first on how to use color and make up your own using my paints. This is followed by chapters on each of the decorating styles that are important to me: French Style, Boho Chic, Swedish Style, Country, and Modern Contemporary. I have broadly allocated a room for each of these styles but, naturally, there is some overlap, so you will find a Boho Chic painted chandelier in the Swedish room, for instance. Colors in one room will also feature in another. It is in this way that the rooms work together and always feel connected.

tools and materials As you flick through the projects in this book, you'll see that none of them calls for specialist equipment. Have a few pots of paint in your chosen colors, some brushes, and clean rags to hand and you are all set to get started.

paint

The starting point is to choose the right paint for the job. This will make painting your furniture an enjoyable experience because the paint will be responsive and you will be able to work in a practical, flexible way. There are many house paints on the market, but I believe that my purpose-made paint, Chalk Paint® (see page 160 for stockists), is the best for the projects in this book. The paint has a very matte texture and absorbs wax easily, and has been specially created to be used in a huge variety of ways—for example, as a wash, with or without texture, or applied thickly. And one of the great bonuses with this paint is that there is no need to prime the furniture or rub it down in preparation, meaning you can start painting easily and quickly while you have the urge. The paint, despite being water based, even mixes easily with the solvent-based wax too, so you can color the final finish to get the exact color you want to achieve.

For the most part you only need to apply one coat of Chalk Paint®, but where two coats are necessary apply the first one with a big brush.

One of the most exciting and interesting ways to use the paint is on fabric. I used to do this many years ago, but have recently rediscovered this technique. One method is to use it as a dye by washing fabric in heavily diluted paint and the effect is wonderful—I have rewashed one dyed linen sheet several times now and the color has remained the same. The other method is to paint and then wax upholstered chairs with my paint, which creates a stunning effect.

brushes

Your brush does not have to be expensive, but it does need to have certain qualities because working with bad brushes can be very frustrating. I find that using a brush that is a mix of synthetic and bristle is the best. The hairs should be fairly long and flexible with a little bounce to allow you to be expressive in your work.

Have a collection of brushes to hand, such as a large one at least 3–4in (8–10cm) wide for painting onto the furniture with speed and a smaller 1–2in (2.5–5cm) brush to work paint into the intricate parts, such as moldings and corners. I tend to work with a 2in (5cm) and 1 in (2.5cm) brush. In some projects I recommend which brush to use, but it’s more important to pick a size that feels comfortable for you to use and suits the size of the piece of furniture or wall/floor being worked on.

Don’t choose brushes that are too short since the paint will not flow well, and don’t use a brush with hard and inflexible bristles, because the paint will look scratchy. Don’t have a floppy brush, because you will have to work too hard to make the paint spread.

I often mention artists’ brushes—by this, I mean soft-haired ones from an artists’ supplier. Cheap craft brushes will only result in frustration, as they are not responsive and the hairs quickly become floppy or fall out. The most expensive artists’ brushes are made from sable hair, which are very good, although squirrel hair and high-quality synthetic brushes don’t cost as much and work extremely well, offering the right amount of strength and spring. I use a range of artists’ brushes: two flat-ended brushes, known as “one strokes,” ¼in (6mm) and ½in (12mm) in size and made from high-quality synthetic hair; and two pointed brushes in a size 4 and a size 6, both made from sable hair.

wax, sandpaper, and varnish

I wax more or less everything I paint to get the right finish for my furniture and walls. I find it makes my projects strong and practical and gives them a beautiful, workable finish. I recommend that you choose a soft wax that can be applied easily with a brush. I often use a 1in (2.5cm) brush to apply wax, but you can use a large brush to get it done quickly if it feels more comfortable. After adding a layer of clear wax to a piece, you can then start applying dark wax or coloring the clear wax with some of my paint to alter the finish.

For the distressed look you need to be able to sand the waxed surface to reveal the wood or another coat of paint—have a range of fine, medium, and coarse sandpapers for this purpose. I tend to find using just the fine and medium grades is usually enough, but sometimes move onto the coarser paper if I really want to distress the furniture.

The only time I use varnish is on floors, when doing decoupage and transfer work, and when I use the crackle varnish set. I prefer to apply wax to my work at the end because it has such a soft finish, can be colored and changed as you work, and stops the work chipping.

cloths

Finally, have a good supply of clean, dry, lint-free cloths to hand so you can wipe brushes, polish wax, apply and wipe off paint, and generally use them to clean. I often buy old sheets from thrift stores and charity shops and find these are ideal.

chapter one

working with paint colors

When working with color, I have always erred on the side of adventure and, as a result, I have made a lot of mistakes! However, that is the way we all learn, and the great advantage with paint is that it can be reapplied so easily. For some, working with color is an intuitive thing, while others are just too nervous to experiment and so play it safe with neutrals. Then there are those who are maybe just a little too daring at times and fall flat on their face!

If you wish to create your own colors, start out by mixing different paints together with your fingers on paper or making small quantities in a paint tray. Use teaspoons and half teaspoons of the different paints to create the desired color—is it a lot of white with a little bit of color or equal amounts? Once you have determined the ratio of colors, you can then go on to make larger quantities, using this as a guideline.

If you are painting a piece of furniture for a particular room, it might be a good idea to make up your paint colors in that room—the existing colors and the quality of the light can make a huge difference to how the paint will appear, and you may need to adjust your color mix to make it lighter or brighter or darker. One final thing, I always recommend that you paint in daylight. I have painted too many pieces in artificial light and then been horrified to see them in daylight—what I thought was a subtle blend of colors turned out to be an alarming mess!

understanding the color wheel

Mixing and combining paint is easily done if you know how color works, and for this a color wheel can be quite helpful. Use it as a springboard to launch you into an exciting mix of colors that you might previously have never considered.

A lot of color wheels that you will come across, though, are far too abstract and technical-looking and only serve to intimidate. For that reason, I have made my own for this book, using my paint colors. As you can see, there aren’t a huge number of paints in my range. That’s because by simply making them paler, darker, warmer, or cooler, it’s possible to create an infinite number of colors.

The color wheel can be used in several ways:

• To darken a color—I rarely use black to make a color darker but, instead, add a complementary color, so the result is more stimulating, complex, and interesting.

• To find a color that will work next to or underneath another color.

• To make a color warmer or cooler.

• For inspiration!

The triangle of colors indicates the three primary colors which can’t be mixed from other colors. Mix red and yellow together to make orange, mix yellow and blue together to make green, and mix blue and red together to make purple. I have placed my colors around this triangle of colors to show, for instance, that Old Violet is nearer to the blues than Emile.

Sometimes working with color is a simple matter of achieving balance. For example, lots of bright red and green in a room will be a terrible assault on the eyes, but the right soft tone of green with just a little scarlet could look sublime.

Finding a color’s complementary color is simply a case of looking at the other side of the wheel at its “opposite” color. Facing English Yellow, for example, is Emile. Use a little Emile to darken English Yellow or use the two colors together but alter their tonal values by adding Old White. This means that you could have creamy pale yellows alongside lavender/lilac colors, although not in equal amounts.

If you want clashing colors, use adjacent primary and secondary colors, such as Emperor’s Silk and Emile or Old Violet, or Emperor’s Silk and Barcelona Orange. These colors can also be mixed together to adjust, for example, Emperor’s Silk to make it more of a tomato red.

I have positioned my neutrals on the wheel with the colors they are most like, and opposite those they complement. Paris Grey, for example, has a blue tinge to it, so I have placed it with the blues, which are opposite the warm oranges and rust colors.

It is also possible with the color wheel to determine which three colors will work together. This goes by the rather grand name of a split complementary color scheme. It means that instead of using, say, the opposite color of Burgundy, which is Antibes Green, you could use the colors that are either side of it, which are Provence and Arles. The colors would not be used in equal quantities, of course, and not in the same tones either.

Mixing the three primary colors—red, blue and yellow—should, in theory, make black but in practice, because paints have white in them to increase covering power, browns are made rather than blacks. To make black you can use Burgundy, Aubusson Blue, and a touch of English Yellow.

A simplified version of the classic color wheel, based on the colors in my own range of paints.

red

Red is a primary color and one that projects forward, so a little goes a long way. Its range is quite large, covering orange-tinged tomato reds to deep plum, cherry, and aubergine reds. When we add white to reds, we create pinks, from salmon and strawberry pinks to cherry blossom pinks. In my range of paints, the scarlet red is Emperor’s Silk, and the deep cherry is Burgundy, both classic colors. Henrietta is a rich complex pink. The complementary color to red is green, a cool secondary color, which can be added to reds and pinks to make them darker and deeper without losing any essential character.

Before the 18th century, the only reds available were the very expensive artist’s pigment and the red oxides and ocher reds, which were a reddish brown. This color was used as a primer for many hundreds of years, as the earth pigment was so inexpensive and readily available. It is also a classic color to be used underneath gilding. This is my Primer Red. If you add white to these reds, however, you will have some beautiful dusty pinks—think of the dusky pinks of Venetian exteriors and the earthy pinks of traditional Swedish paintwork. Some of these ocher reds are tinged with an orange rust color because of the iron present in the soil from which they are made. Others even have a touch of purple in them caused by manganese in the soil. This is my Scandinavian Pink.

Bright reds first came to Europe in the 18th century via the red lacquer cabinets imported from the east, where cinnabar, the red pigment, was found more readily. A really bright red wasn’t available as an interiors paint until the 20th century, which meant that pinks weren’t either. In the 1960s, bright red paintwork became popular on furniture. To create that retro vintage look, use Emperor’s Silk with just clear wax on top.

The red of lacquered chinoiserie cabinets inspired me to make my Emperor’s Silk paint. Used with gilding and some lightened Arles, which is a rich yellow, and covered with a dark wax, polished to a sheen, it creates a stunning effect.

how to work with red

Emperor’s Silk A pure bright red could be used on its own with dark wax for a strong Chinese laquer red.

To make a more accurate Chinese lacquer color, mix Emperor’s Silk (left) with Primer Red (bottom left).

Burgundy is a ruby cranberry-like color and can be used on neo-classical furniture or as an alternative to Chinese lacquer red.

Primer Red is also the color of Chinese lacquer and could be mixed with a little Barcelona Orange to make it a burnt orange.

colors that work with emperor’s silk

Olive All the cooling green-grays (see below) combine well with all reds and pinks. The way to make green and red work together is to have one bright and one quiet. If both are bright, they will fight with each other.

Graphite and Paris Grey are as colorless as the reds are warm and lively so make a terrific contrast to each other. Use Emperor’s Silk or Primer Red, then paint Graphite on top; distress a little for a striking Asian look.

Old Violet A great boho combination.

Cream looks retro with Olive and Louis Blue. Yellow and red are warm colors, so cool them by dirtying or making them darker. Primer Red looks good with Old Ochre, Burgundy, slightly lightened English Yellow, and lightened or deepened Emperor’s Silk. Gold leaf also looks good on all reds, especially with dark wax.

making pinks

To make pinks: adding white to reds makes pinks. Adding Old White to Burgundy makes a dusty raspberry pink as Burgundy is nearer to blue on the color wheel.

You can get a really bright fuchsia pink by adding a little Old White to Emperor’s Silk. The more white you add, the more it becomes strawberry pink.

making reds darker

To make Emperor’s Silk or Burgundy less intense or darker, add a little of their complementary color. Here, Olive, a yellowish green, is added to Emperor’s Silk to create a darker brownish red. If a little Olive is added to Burgundy, its opposite on the color wheel, the result is deep red.

Add a little Florence to Emperor’s Silk to make a deeper color.

To make reds darker add just a little green. It has to be the green opposite on the color wheel otherwise you will make a brown.

the pinks Not all pinks are baby pink!

Henrietta is a slightly purplish pink, inspired by 18th-century rococo pinks and the painted neoclassical ceilings of Robert Adam. It works with Olive and Château Grey, as these cool, serious colors help to take the sweetness away from the pink. Henrietta is also a quirky boho color, good with Louis Blue and Versailles.

Scandinavian Pink is inspired by the traditional earthy pinks found in Swedish decorating. It makes the best “non-pink” because there is none of the baby girl pink to it.

Antoinette is a natural pink inspired by Marie Antoinette, but it’s not too sweet so it can be used on a kitchen wall (see page 125) and not look like a bedroom.

Make reds warmer by adding, for instance, a touch of Barcelona Orange (right) to Emperor’s Silk

cooling grays and greens These work particularly well with reds and pinks.

Château Grey with Old White creates sage greens and look good with bright reds.

Olive has a bit of ocher yellow in it. Adding Old White to it also makes sage greens.

Paris Grey works with pinks as well combined with Primer Red, Emperor’s Silk, and Burgundy.

French Linen is a khaki color and looks terrific with Burgundy.

green

Green is a secondary color and it covers possibly the largest range of any color, as it displays so many different characteristics, ranging from sharp yellow lime greens, vivid grass greens, forest greens, and sea turquoise greens to coppery verdigris, copper greens, and earthy sage greens. Their personalities vary enormously, too—lime green, for example, is nothing like a bluish verdigris, yet they are both greens.

Red is the complementary color of green and a little of it can be added to green to make it darker. The two colors also work well side by side, provided that one of them is bright and the other dull and soft or pale. Generally, green is a cool color that recedes into the background, although the more yellow it is, the warmer it is and the more it seeks attention.

True, reliable greens for painting furniture came about in the 18th century when new pigments were invented—before that, greens were notoriously unreliable in the way they faded and darkened. The invention of Prussian green meant that true greens and a range of pale and clean greens could be made for the first time. Green started to be used on a scale never seen before. Chippendale, for example, designed and painted furniture for the 18th-century English actor David Garrick using cream with a deep green. With my Olive, Florence, and Antibes Green paints, together with Provence and Aubusson Blue, I have created a full range of greens.

Before the18th century, all over Europe, a green, earthy gray, similar to my Château Grey, was used for folk work and farmhouses. It was often made by mixing all the leftover paint from previous jobs, which resulted in a muddy green. In Sweden and Italy, the color of this earth pigment was particularly green but elsewhere it was more a green-tinged brown. Used next to a red or a pink, the green of the pigment was enhanced, but next to a true green, the color would, of course, look quite brown!

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, green became one of the most ubiquitous colors, as it was dependable, easily made, and still quite a new color, which made it fashionable. All over Europe, farmhouse furniture was painted in rich and deep greens. I often use Antibes Green with dark wax on top to re-create this color. The invention of a really bright blue green came in the 1930s, which made with eau de nil, a pale aqua blue green, when mixed with white and this is one of the colors which identifies the period.

I particularly love old furniture that has been painted green because of the way the color ages. This early 19th-century English demi-lune cabinet has been painted and decorated with neoclassical motifs and a pastoral scene on the center panel. The green has faded, darkened, and bleached a little so it appears as a mix of deep olive greens and pale sage green with a hint of aquamarine. Touches of gold, soft whites, and pink lighten the overall effect.

colors that work with olive mixes

Old Ochre A cool faded yellow.

Henrietta This sophisticated pink is the pale complementary color to Olive.

Burgundy A touch of elegant Burgundy is warming alongside a pale sage.

Duck Egg Blue This blue green looks wonderful with dark Olive, which brings out the blueness of the Duck Egg Blue.

how to work with olive

Olive

Olive and Florence make a medium moss or bottle green.

Versailles, an 18th-century soft, lightly yellowed dusky green, picks up other colors well and changes character accordingly.

Olive and Provence together make an eau de nil green, especially when a little Old White is added.