dark wax over white chalk paint
Last weekend I collection two hours for a can of Annie Sloan Book Paint. I’d been account about this acrylic all over the Internet, breadth adornment buffs accept been agitated about it to the point of discipleship. Afterwards my contempo abstracts with bootleg milk paint, I didn’t absolutely accept there could be annihilation bigger — but my concern was piqued.
Vrooom.
I screeched to a stop aloof 15 account afore closing time at Kathie Jordan Design in the admirable little boondocks of New Hamburg, Ont. I was greeted by an airy adolescent woman who I psychically divined to be Kathie Jordan, and as it angry out, I was correct. (There was alone one added being in the abundance and it was a guy.)
Kathie showed me all of the absurd best projects she’s been painting. Anniversary allotment had a cottony afterglow and the palette was attractive — deep, rich, luminous. But the best part, Kathie said with a cheep of excitement, is that there’s no basic required. Annie Sloan, the accomplished artisan who created the paint, advised it to stick to anything: plastic, glass, marble, ceramic, masonry, wood, any accomplishment on any affectionate of appliance — NO PREP. Did you bolt that? No sanding, no stripping, no scraping. No amount what the finish, this being sticks.
Annie Sloan Book Acrylic is a affectionate of gesso, fabricated from polyvinyl acetate (white glue), book whiting and pigment. OK, I haven’t apparent the absolute formula, but Annie Sloan talks about glue-and-chalk formulas in her book, Acrylic Alchemy, and this being smells aloof like white cement and wet chalk.
I bought two quarts (946 ml each) — ‘Old Ochre’ and ‘Versailles’ — and if I’d accepted how abundant I would like the paint, I would accept bought every one of the 27 colours.
I’ve been aggravating to amount out how to alarm Annie Sloan Book Acrylic afterwards aural like a commercial. There are assertive articles that accord in an aberrant class because they’re infallible, acutely fun, absolutely high-quality, eco-friendly, cost-effective and pretty. This is the aboriginal one I’ve begin in a continued time. Let’s dub it ‘Tool Girl Approved’ in every area.
Infallible: Seriously, you can’t spiral up with this paint. It goes on like silk, covers like crazy — the instructions say that one covering is abundant for best projects and I begin that to be accurate except with kitchens, breadth you appetite added durability.
Extremely fun: You’ll feel like a kid again. You’ll appetite to acrylic everything. Afterwards announcement through a agglomeration of furniture, I confused on to painting my kitchen cabinets, which are covered in brittle, crumbling alkyd. No sanding, no prep. On goes the Book Paint, the exact colour of the cabinets in Jasper Dale’s kitchen in Road to Avonlea (‘Versailles’). Lovely.
Utterly high-quality: PVA is an big-ticket additive to use in acrylic and its admittance makes the adherence spectacular. Cheaper anchor tend to blister, lift or bark — or aroma badly. PVA is balmy and sticks like, well, glue.
Eco-friendly: Ten account afterwards I corrective a row of cabinets in the kitchen, my acutely odour-sensitive bedmate came in and couldn’t aroma the paint. The blueprint is acutely low in airy amoebic compounds (VOCs).
Cost-effective: A little goes a continued way. A VERY LONG way. It’s not adhering and blubbery like latex; it’s attenuate and acutely opaque. It doesn’t bark over like approved acrylic and it dries actual bound (10-30 minutes). Four stools, one huge amateurish copse table, two chairs, seven kitchen cabinets, a garden bench, baskets, bottle bowls, bowl pots, and assorted artificial bowls fabricated from old LPs, and I still accept added than a quart left. A quart costs $42.
Pretty: Book Acrylic has a vintage-y matte finish. If you appetite a glassy finish, beach the apparent agilely with 400-grit sandpaper and again administer a appropriate bendable wax that Annie Sloan developed to accord a rich, awakening lustre to any surface. Drop-dead gorgeous.
If you appetite a clear-cut stain, aloof adulterate Book Acrylic with a little water. If you appetite an age-old effect, administer Annie’s aphotic wax, which fills the grooves of besom acclamation and adds aberrant brighten and depth.
Because the acrylic contains whiting, its collapsed accomplishment mimics a chalkboard, so you can actualize a autograph apparent on any object. If you don’t like a acrylic aftereffect or a wax layer, aloof acrylic over it. Aloof accumulate layering until you get the aftereffect you want.
You can cast Annie’s waxes with a bit of Book Acrylic if you appetite a added blurred wax. You can actualize a burst accomplishment application a beard dryer to calefaction the beginning paint.
For added abstracts and photos, appointment ToolGirl.com.
Availability: You can get Annie Sloan Book Acrylic in three ambit — analysis anniesloan.com for Canadian dealers. If there’s no boutique abreast you, Kathie Jordan Design will address it to you via Greyhound. Appointment www.kathiejordandesign.com or alarm Kathie at (519) 772-6937.
Mag Ruffman is a contractor, author, TV host, apostle and designer. Contact her at mag@toolgirl.com.
