I've Joined The Annie Sloan Club - But I Hardly Dare Admit Something....

....*whispers* I'm yet to be convinced :-0

I hardly dare admit that as I am yet to find anyone in blogland that doesn't just love this paint. In fact it was the rave reviews of everyone that urged me to take the plunge and order some.

I have just painted one small item so far, so I am going to reserve complete judgement but so far I am a wee bit disappointed - Mr G says I fell for all the hype and it was bigged up to such an extent it never stood a chance!!

I ordered Old White, Duck Egg and a tin of clear wax. My Stepdad made me some rustic looking shelves to hold my trinkets in the bathroom and so I set about painting them.

First of all upon opening the duck egg blue I was surprised as it was very green, hardly a hint of blue at all and not like the duck egg our kitchen & conservatory are painted.

I had read reports that the paint was thick but I found it to be a nice consistency, highly pigmented and it went on really well. You can tell it's expensive paint from how it covers so nicely.

I painted the edges of the shelves with the duck egg. It dried really, really quickly to an extremely flat, velvety finish.

I then went over the whole piece in the Old White. It covered well and dried quickly.

Then came the bit I found disappointing, I had read that it was really easy to sand and distress but I must confess I found it no easier than regular emulsion - you still needed to use plenty of elbow grease and work up a sweat!! One thing I found a definite downside was the mess - as you sand it creates clouds of chalk dust which is not ideal when (due to Mr G filling the garage with his RC paraphernalia) you only have the house to paint in.

Then came the wax. Annie Sloan recommends using a wax brush, but at £29 each I settle for one rag to wipe on and one to buff - the wax did bring the finish up from a very flat one to a slight sheen but again I was just not loving it like everyone seems to. I had read reports of how smooth and professional a piece would look with wax, but again I couldn't see a whole lot of difference from regular emulsion.

Don't get me wrong, it looks nice and I am pleased with the result, but after painting lots of furniture with regular emulsion I thought the chalk paint was going to be a revelation and it's just (so far) not.

I will report back when I have painted another piece, I have a bedside table and a mirror to do as well as a couple of pieces I'd like to redo that are already painted.

Here's the finished resulted (which I love, but I think I could have achieved similar with the cheaper paint I usually use):

The new fabric for the dressing table has arrived too:

The stripes are a bit further apart than I had thought but the colour is much better, more duck egg:

I still can't do anything with it yet as although my sciatica is much improved, it still hurts a bit to sit for any length and generally aches and I am afraid of "running before I can walk" and making it worse again, despite the fact I am B-O-R-E-D-!!

hugs,

S x

PS A couple of you have asked how I did my banner, it's a bit hard to answer as I did it in Photoshop - I don't really know how to use Photoshop, I just spent time playing with the photos I liked, resizing them and then copying and pasting onto a bigger "background" then added the text and border. It's a bit like saying I know how to drive to Gatwick but I couldn't direct you if you know what I mean?