paint | Beneath My Heart

How I Painted my Vanity with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint

September 4, 2012 AT 9:36 am 47 Comments

September 4, 2012 By traci 47 Comments

Hey, friends!

I hope you had a wonderful Labor Day Weekend!

Today, I wanted to show you how I painted the vanity in yesterday’s post.

Warning: I am not a professional painter and never will be. Smile

There is no special or secret method that I use.

Basically, I paint, I sand, I seal.

For this project, I decided to use Annie Sloan Chalk Paint. I have attended one of Annie Sloan’s workshops on her American tour, but I have never painted a piece of furniture with her paint.

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Although I have wanted to for a long time.

I have heard GREAT things about ASCP. The qualities I am most attracted to is that you don’t have to prime or sand a piece of furniture before painting with ASCP, and it distresses beautifully.

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If you want to know more about Annie Sloan Chalk Paint, I highly suggest you reading about it HERE, from Shaunna at Imperfectly Perfect. She also sells ASCP, so if you want to purchase some, go HERE.

The color of ASCP I chose is called French Linen.

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Since I didn’t have to prime or sand, I just began painting with my regular paint brush.

When the paint is wet, it is several shades lighter than the finished color. It will dry into a deep, warm, beautiful gray.

It dries fairly quick. I painted two coats.

Then I sanded the dresser with a sanding sponge on all the raised areas.

It was late at night when I took the next two pictures, so I used a flash. That is why the paint looks like a different color.

After I sanded the raised areas, it was ready to wax.

Before you wax it, the paint looks dry and chalky.

But when you apply the Annie Sloan Clear Wax, that is when the REAL beauty of the paint comes out!

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(For a great video on how to apply ASCP wax, watch Shaunna’s video HERE.)

Annie Sloan has awesome brushes to apply the wax, but I don’t own one. Sad smile So I just used a cheese cloth. I am hoping to buy one of her brushes soon, but they are a little bit pricey.

I was smiling from ear to ear and filling pretty giddy when I was waxing this piece.

Girls, I was falling in love. Ooh-la-la!

I cannot tell you how much I love this color of paint!

The original hardware looks amazing on this piece. It’s old tarnished brass, I believe.

Painting this vanity was exactly what this bathroom needed.

I’m gonna see how the wax holds up to water drops around the sink. I talked to Shaunna, and she said it should be fine. But if I need to, I will apply Minwax Wipe-on Poly.

That’s it!

SUPER easy.

I love ASCP! It’s pretty pricey, though. Over $30 for a quart. But you don’t have to buy primer, which is nice. It was definitely worth the extra splurge on this piece.

If you have any questions, just let me know. I’ll try my best to answer them.

Have you ever used Annie Sloan Chalk Paint?

What did you think of it?

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Filed Under bathrooms, furniture makeover, makeover, makeovers, paint, Paint Colors 47 Comments

Dresser turned Vanity Makeover

September 2, 2012 AT 10:19 pm 62 Comments

September 2, 2012 By traci 62 Comments

I am soooo very excited to show you this project!

I gave you a sneak peek of something I was painting last week.

It was our bathroom vanity! You know…the one that we just re-did?

Yep! We re-did it again!

(I just started singing Brittany Spears’ “Oops, I did it again” in my head.) Smile

The second makeover turned out WAY better than the first.

Let’s take a look back shall we?

We bought this dresser at a thrift store last fall for $50.

I immediately knew that I wanted to turn it into a vanity for our master bathroom.

I was picturing something beautiful in my head. Like this…

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Cy worked really hard on sanding and staining our dresser…

He added a drop in sink…

It really was beautiful. I loved it.

But as we continued to work on the bathroom, something wasn’t jivin’ and I couldn’t put my finger on it.

I loved the hard wood floors…

I loved the faux wood beams and white washed brick…

I loved the claw foot tub….

But there was something about that vanity that wasn’t sitting well with me.

I think I was having trouble with the dark cherry stain. It just wasn’t working with the walnut floor and beams.

I started thinking about painting it, but I didn’t want to tell Cy.

He was going to kill me.

But it kept bugging me.

And bugging me.

I mentioned to Cy that I sort of wanted to paint it. And guess what? I’m still livin’!

I guess after being married to me for 15 years, nothing really surprises him any more. Smile

So then I started rolling around in my head, “What color do I want to paint it?”

And here is what I decided on…

Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in French Linen.

Perfection!

(If I do say so myself!)

I was able to add the original hardware back on the vanity, and it looks great.

It is the exact contrast I need between the vanity and the flooring. I was probably more giddy about this project than any other that I have done during our renovation.

I was DYING to show you guys last week! It is EXACTLY what I was envisioning for my bathroom, and I am SOOOO glad I painted it!

So here is my advice to you for what it is worth.

If something isn’t jivin’ in your décor…change it!

Trust your gut!

Just do it!

You’ll be so glad you did. I know I am. Smile

Let’s look back and the transformation of this $50 dresser…

Tomorrow, I will show you how I painted the dresser. It was super easy.

I will also give you a breakdown of the total cost of this dresser turned vanity.

So what do you think?

Do you like it better stained or painted?

Linking this project to…

and

“Show me What You’ve Got” at Not Just a Housewife

“Furniture Feature Friday” at Miss Mustard Seed

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Filed Under bathrooms, furniture makeover, makeover, makeovers, New Home, paint, Uncategorized 62 Comments

How to White Wash Brick {Bathroom Update}

August 22, 2012 AT 4:28 pm 95 Comments

August 22, 2012 By traci 95 Comments

For anyone who is new to my blog, my family lives in a 1400 sq ft ranch that we are updating and adding on to.

The addition to the house includes a master bedroom and bath downstairs and two bedrooms and a bath upstairs.

When we added our master bedroom and bath to the side of the house, I knew I wanted to leave the brick wall exposed instead of covering it up.

The only problem was the brick was not pretty. If you can see where the lamp is shining on the brick, it is very orange-y.

It looks a little darker in the picture below, but it definitely had an orange hue to it. Try as I might, I didn’t think I could decorate around orange brick.

So at about 11:30 pm the other night, I got a hankering to white wash the brick.

I posted about my idea on my Beneath My Heart facebook page, and I got a bunch of “Yeah! Do it!”

So full of courage, I mixed my wall color paint (SW Natural Choice) half and half with water.

I actually used my glass measuring cup, added two cups of water and two cups of paint, then mixed them together.

It gives you a milky consistency.

(Some people white wash with a lime and salt mixture, but not I.)

Then I just painted the brick with the mixture. Be sure to put down a drop cloth because it can get really messy!

It goes on white, but as the white wash dries, the brick color begins to show through.

Here is what the brick looked like with the first coat of white wash on it.

It looked really good, and I was excited about the process. I shared the pic on my facebook page again, and everyone gave me big thumbs up!

But the brick color still showed through a little too much for me. I needed the brick to be a little whiter.

The paint mixture had thickened up a little by the time I got to the bottom of the measuring cup, so I added a little more water. I had to do this several times. I would add a little more paint, then water it down. There is no perfect formula. You just want to water down your paint color

NOW HERE IS WHERE I FREAKED OUT!

It was about midnight, and Cy was tiling the shower next to me. I add the second coat of white wash on and the brick turned completely white.

It wasn’t pretty. I said to Cy, “Oh no! I’ve ruined it! The brick is going to be completely white!”

But there was nothing I could do at that point, so I had to finish.

Luckily, as I continued to paint up the wall, the brick below me began to dry and the brick color began to show through. WHEW! It just takes a minute for the brick to soak up the paint to give it that white washed look.

I was so relieved! And I was very satisfied with how it turned out. You can still see the detail of the brick, but it got rid of the orange color. And it gives me a more neutral palette to decorate around.

We have not finished the trim work around the doorway or the ceiling.

Cy will finish that this week.

I definitely love it! And now I cannot wait to white wash my orange brick fireplace!

I plan on doing that in the next couple of weeks. Can’t wait to share it with you!

Here is a little white washed brick “eye candy”

for you!

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So what do you think?

Do you like the brick natural or white washed?

(You won’t hurt my feelings.) Smile

Have you ever white washed brick before?

Linking to…

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Filed Under bathrooms, makeovers, New Home, paint 95 Comments

My Colortopia {My New Online Friend}

March 1, 2012 AT 8:00 am 5 Comments

March 1, 2012 By traci 5 Comments

By nature, I am a DIY’er. (Do it Yourself’er)

I can’t help it.

I would rather build it than buy it.

I love to make it, paint it, sand it, saw it, hammer it, and stain it all by myself!

But there is one thing I don’t like to do by myself…

and that is pick a paint color.

It makes me a nervous wreck!

I will stress for weeks and weeks about picking a paint color for my walls or a piece of furniture. I search on blogs, I google, I ask my friends, I read magazines, I make piles of color swatches on my table, and I am still a hot mess over picking a color.

So I have been so excited to see some of my blog friends sharing posts about My Colortopia!