Annie Sloan Painted Coffee Table

Hello everyone, I hope you all had a good weekend. 

Last week was rather busy with some sewing and painting furniture projects, as well as junking and antiqueing, and all the usual rather more mundane day to day stuff . So with all that on top of a bit of socialising, and a lot of dog walking, I somehow didn't find the time to blog, but here I am today better late than never!

Rummaging around the local charity warehouses last week I found this pretty coffee table with a partly split leg for £10.  My other half glued this back together easily, and after a lovely time messing around with Annie Sloan Chalk Paints and wax I transformed it from its original dingy brown-ness.........

 into something a little more pale and elegant..........

It is now painted in two gentle colours: Annie Sloan Chalk Paint Country Grey and Original.  

And to me it now has a distinctly French feel about it.

Here's what I did:

Once the wood glue was dry on the leg, I dusted the table down then wiped it clean with a damp cloth.

Once dry, I painted the whole table with Annie Sloan Country Grey, then when that was dry I gave it a light sanding with fine sandpaper all over.

I then painted the main table top with another coat of Country Grey, and I painted the sides under the table top with a random patchy coat of Annie Sloan Original, touching up with more paint where I felt it needed a bit more depth of colour.

I then painted a thin stripe of Original above the carved edge of the table top (see below) and I picked out the carving on the legs with Original too.

I then sanded the whole lot again once the paint was dry, sanding quite hard where I wanted a bit of distressing, mainly over the carved areas and where the paint would wear most naturally when knocked and bumped into.

Be sure to wipe off all the dust created by sanding.

I then waxed the table all over using Annie Sloan Clear Wax and let it dry for a day. I then buffed it up to give it a lovely soft shine.

The table came with a fitted glass top, but if it hadn't then I would have put a second coat of wax on the table top once the first coat was dry and buffed.

It feels beautifully smooth and silky, mainly because of sanding before the wax. I love a silky-smooth finish, and sanding before waxing when using Annie Sloan paints gives you just that.

A word of warning: don't be tempted to buff too soon after waxing. 

I find it needs at least an overnight wait, and if it still feels a little damp or tacky in places then be patient or else it will rub off where it isn't properly dry once you start buffing. And then you pay the price for your impatience by having to re-wax over those rubbed-off areas!

So I now allow a good 24 hours to dry and then it buffs up a dream!

Poor Logan can't understand why I keep taking photos of the table and not him!

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More Annie Sloan Chalk Paint Projects

To see my other furniture transformations and projects using Annie Sloan paints then go to my sidebar under categories and search under Annie Sloan or Painted Furniture, or click on the links below for specific projects.

To see how I transformed a kitchen dresser using AS Old Ochre click here....

To see how I updated an old wooden bureau using AS Country Grey click here

See how I transformed an old wooden table with shelf into a dog bed, click here!

 before....

and after - one happy dog!

Updating an old brown chest of drawers using AS Antoinette click here

To see how to make shabby chic plant pots click here

 Transform mirrors, old picture frames and shelves........see post here 

This frame above is the one I painted as part of the Annie Sloan painting course at Dovetails Vintage!

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Since my last post I've had a couple of visits to the local Antique and Flea Market, and found a few vintage lace and linen pieces, as well as some fabric and a few other vintage bits and pieces.

Here's a few of my finds........

Found this sweet little vintage cross-stitch pin-cushion - it is tiny, (probably only a couple of inches wide) as are the neat stitches. 50p!

And some gorgeous shot taffetas - one a lovely rich amber colour, shot with a darker shade, and a teal (shot with lilac) - beautiful!  Only £1 each length, both about 2 m each - bargain!

A large, very thickly padded old-fashioned teacosy in a tapestry type fabric called out to me.......buy me, buy me!

So how could I not for £2!!!

A gorgeous pair of vintage Laura Ashley curtains.......

Some vintage crochet patterns..........look at how elegant this blouse is, as is the lady modelling it!

I was excited to find these crochet edgings.... I love making crochet edgings and look forward to trying out some of the easier ones here, and adapting the more complex ones into something my simple crochet skills can cope with!

Some gorgeous vintage embroderie anglais trims and edgings.....

a sweet round vintage work basket and more embroderie anglais.....

And lots of sewing bits and bobs, old elastics and petershams, ribbons and trims....

and some lovely Dorcas pin tins, and an old tape measure

and more beautiful white vintage lace and linens.

These are just some of my finds over the last week or so.

Bringing these home and sorting them has made realise that I must get serious about culling some of my vintage linens and laces, and start to sell some of them on-line. I find it hard to pass up beautiful vintage linens when I find them, but a lot of them need new homes if I am not going to use them myself as they are in their original form, or re-make them into something new.

So already on the list of "things to do" in 2014 is to set up a Vintage Gillyflower Etsy shop.

In the meantime I am making heavy weather out of stocking my Etsy shop with some Christmas Goodies.

Having never put anything up for sale in my Etsy shop I am at last plodding away with the "taking of photos" stage, having already prepared a list of what is going in the shop.

Here's a sneak preview of some of the many Xmas decorations awaiting listing.....

vintage embroidered wool hearts, antique mangle cloth hearts, lavender-filled mangle cloth hearts, tea-stained ticking doves.......

vintage white linen hearts with vintage lace or printed fronts........

hessian Christmas tree hangers......not many left

natural linen hearts with stencilled number 25.......still lots of these

rusty tin heart hangers.......not many left

vintage linen hearts printed with "Paris".........

All the above and much more to be listed in the next few days in my shop.

If anything takes your fancy in the meantime, please email me for details and prices.

EDITED 30 NOV
Finally "gone live" with my Etsy Shop! Now open for business!
click on the link here to have a peep"

How to Make a Fabric Covered Notice Board

Loyal readers of my blog may remember that a couple of posts ago here, I left you with a bit of a teaser about a simple project that I had made.

Now that I'm back online I'd like share that project with you, and show you how I covered a notice board (or pin board) with fabric, so that I would have somewhere to pin inspirations, business cards and anything else I wanted to have to hand in my (newly tidied) sewing room.

I'd been looking around for a padded fabric-covered noticeboard for a while without any success. A year or two ago they were everywhere. The odd one I did find was either too small or too expensive, so I decided to have a go at making my own.

First I sourced a large pin board (cork covered board) from an office supplies company via Amazon - they seemed to offer the best price. I paid about £8 for a large 2' x 3' wood-edged cork board.

Other materials and equipment needed:

Fabric - enough to cover the board with several inches spare all round

Polyester wadding

Heavy Duty staple gun (that fires direct into a surface)

Staples

Scissors

Wall fittings of choice

Backing fabric (optional)

Ribbon or trim (optional) 

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Tutorial - How to Cover a Pin Board

First, lay out your fabric and place board on top (see above). (Be sure when using geometric repeat patterns, stripes and checks that the fabric is lined up correctly, parallel to the board, otherwise you could end up with a wonky front!)

Cut around board allowing approximately 2" to 3" extra fabric (depending on depth of board) for folding over to staple at back of board. Better to allow too much than too little as you will trim away excess fabric later.

Iron fabric and set aside.

Cut out the wadding in the same way allowing plenty of extra to fold over to back of board.

Next, lay the fabric right side facing down (wrong side facing up), then place the wadding on top of the fabric, and the pin board (wrong side up) on top of the wadding (see above).

Starting in the middle of one long side, pull the fabric up taut around the side of the board to the back, and holding down firmly, staple into wooden batten surrounding cork board. Be careful not to pull too hard that you pull the fabric out from under board and away from other side.

Add a few more staples either side of the first centre staple, then repeat on opposite long side of the pin board, pulling taut so that the fabric lays flat on the right side.

Once you have a few staples in place on both sides, you can then continue evenly down each side until the corner is reached.

Staple up near the corner then make a neat mitre fold as below.

Staple corner (see below) and continue along top (or bottom) of board and repeat cornering.

 When you have finished stapling all four sides and four corners, check that the front is looking neat and taut.

Trim away excess wadding and fabric, roughly in line with edge of wooden batten.

Continue trimming all the way round until back of board is finished.

The back should look something like this (see below) when you have finished trimming

And, fingers crossed, it will look neat and taut from the front, with any pattern lined up neatly in a straight line parallel to the top and sides!

Voila!

Now, should you wish to do a "proper job" on your board, you can now cover the back so that no raw edges or back board shows. 

At this stage I just wanted to get my board up and into action, so I didn't bother, but if you did want to, then you would measure a piece of fabric the same size as the board, then turning under a hem all the way round you could glue it into place over the staples, or indeed just staple it into place.

Also, if you wanted to add the ubiquitous ribbons, useful for poking cards etc under, and for making it look more decorative, you could add criss-cross ribbons, stapling them behind the board.

You would add the ribbon before the backing if you were going to do both.

I wanted a simple board without further decoration so I put mine up as it is.

I fixed two hooks to the back of the board, one either side, pushing back the wadding and fabric to do so.

I then added picture wire (string would do) and hung my board onto a hook. 

You, of course, can fix it however you want, and whatever suits your walls best.

So there it is - a fabric-covered pin board in it's simplest form. 

But you could use any type of fabric and make it as pretty as you want with ribbons or braid.

I hope this may help anyone who fancies having a go at making their own fabric-covered notice board - it's very quick to make, probably less than an hour!

I have a few more new projects to share next time, and maybe another "How to".........here's a little sneaky peek ........

Hope you all have a good weekend - Friday tomorrow!