Styling The Seasons with Annie Sloan Wall Paint

Last year I was a 'painter in residence' for the chalk paint by Annie Sloan, before being chosen I had been using it for some time on walls, despite the fact that it was originally intended for furniture. For me it was a welcome change to traditional emulsion paint, giving a velvety matt surface.  The lack of sheen on the surface gives the colour more depth which changes throughout the day depending on the light. 

This however is not for everyone and is probably not ideal for areas of high wear or where water might splash. So now to fill that gap, Annie Sloan has developed a specific wall paint and this week I got to try it out.

My studio has wooden 'tongue & groove' panel walls, so in actuality I was painting over a standard emulsion on wood. This made the roller slip a bit so there is some slight patching, this would only take a few minutes to rectify and was down to the roller and not the paint.

I'm so familiar with the original chalk paint I find normal major brand paints very weird. Firstly, emulsion wall paint is so thin and splattery, needing several coats very often and the cheaper the paint the worse it is.  Secondly with wood paint Im allergic to the fumes and this was the major reason I changed to chalk paint in the first place.

The colour I've used here is Versailles, but please don't take these photos as a good representation of it, I was shooting in quite strange light and depending on your computer screen settings, the colour will not be precise.  For a truer colour look at the Annie Sloan site  and get tester pots, paint large areas of the walls you want and see how it looks in situ. I have seen Versailles look quite yellow in some light but in my studio it is a pale coffee beige. I wanted a neutral that seemed quite seasonal, matching the tones of changing leaves in nature. 

So how is this paint in comparison? Well, firstly I was really surprised with how thick it is, it must be the thickest wall paint on the market.  This I think would be particularly useful if you are painting a light colour over a dark colour, on the last photo I painted over a very dark blue chalk paint on the chimney breast and it covered it just fine. Also as I was painting onto a wall there was no slipping with the roller so its incredibly flat there.

I used a very cheap and very rubbish roller to apply the paint, just to put it through its paces.  It went on the wall a treat and while it didn't look 'even' when wet, it dried all one colour. 

The paint has a very slight silk finish so is suitable for wiping down or splashes of water but still matt enough not to be shiny.  

  

You can see the range here.  The coverage was good for a thick paint too and so if you are using the furniture paint you can find a wall colour that will work with it as Annie's paints sit very well together and she gives excellent tips about which ones sit alongside each other. 

While I'm here I would like to say a thank you also to stockist Dawn at Halcyon Days in Rye who very kindly gave me a tester of the wall paint in Duck Egg Blue, which I've used in a few photos now. I wandered into her shop when on holiday this year and we spent lots of time there chatting and laughing, she has some great vintage items too. 

The wreath on the chimney breast is now on its third or fourth incarnation. It was the one that I was given when we went to the 'Styling Spring At Mine" workshop.  It is now resplendent with dry hydrangea heads and I expect will get a bit of ivy and maybe even some holly nearer to Christmas.   

This wall paint has given me the bug again, I'm thinking about some other lighter colours now the natural daylight is disappearing. Also time soon to dig out the furry rugs and woolen throws. I've already started to light fires as there is a distinct nip in the air, and yet there are still roses on the bushes outside so it's an odd time to be sure.

Janice. 

Urban Jungle Bloggers Plants and Blooms

Im so happy to be part of this community of Urban Jungle Bloggers, Igor and Judith are very generous in sharing posts and photos and their appeal is worldwide so it's very interesting to see people from other countries following the same challenges.

This month its Plants and Blooms, very appealing to me as there is usually some floral element in my photos, it's the finishing touch, a way to capture forever the beauty of something transient and fragile.  Below are some of my home grown roses, the bushes were planted this year and still giving me lots of fragrant blooms.

My background colour in these two shots is using Annie Sloan Wall Paint in Duck Egg Blue, but as I painted over a green colour this may have effected its hue. Always consider this when painting, colours will change from that on the tin if you are painting over another strong colour. 

I shall be reviewing this new wall paint soon, with full details of how it differs from Annie Sloan's chalk paint.

Above is a new play thing, a notice board from Rose & Grey. It comes with clips and a finish that looks like old wooden pallets. 

I should also mention that a couple of these small planters are hand made. Above the little pale green one is from Katie Robbins (Ceramic Magpie) and below the mug top left is from the online store The Future Kept.

This large round vase is a vintage one by the company Bitossi, a highly collectable retro range.  I really want one of their lions, and am always on the look out for one.

More vintage goodies in this photo, I attended a truly fab event The Bloggers Vintage Jumble and instagram meet. Fellow bloggers from far and wide congregated on a sunny Sunday afternoon for tea cake and shopping in a village hall in Lindfield. It was lovely to see the faces of social media friends, a too rare occurrence in my opinion.

Jessica Trent sold me the embroidered table cloth and this was one of many great items I came home with, I was unable to show any restraint. Heather Young very generously let me snaffle the hydrangeas.  I'm currently growing a lot of the plants but as it's their first year the blooms are still a bit young and floppy to hold any shape when cut. From what I can work out, the hydrangea heads only look like this when they are quite old flowers which almost dry on the bush before picking. So thank's Heather you have saved me doing a midnight raid on a neighbours garden .... :)

My next blogger meet is in Bristol for the Sisterhood Supper with Toast, not toast to eat, silly, but Toast the great label. The food is being cooked by a well known chef and we will be learning calligraphy and wreath making. 

I hope you are all enjoying the Autumn colours, in the UK we have been blessed with such great weather the last few months making this time of year even more special. 

Get the Art Deco look

Over the next few weeks I'm going to feature some ideas about how to style in different decades using colour to bring the look together.

Im starting with the 1920s/1930s, and focusing on Art Deco, I will move onto the 40s/50s, 60s and 70s  in the coming weeks. My mission is to find things that you can buy from high street or online stores if you don't have the time and cash to find the original vintage item. While Im all for buying second hand, antique and original, it's not always possible to find those things and whether you have the original or a modern copy, you will still need to hone the style with your colour choices. Certain decades speak in specific colours and it's my aim here to condense these looks for you.

So, starting with Art Deco, we are looking at Black with either gold, pink or green as seen below. Its always Black and something, lots of black ..

This first moodboard is featuring pink and black combinations, here we have a selection of original Deco fabrics and bathroom mixed with items from the House Of Fraser Biba range and the Linea Lustre set of Martini glasses. Farrow and Ball Calamine is in the right hue for this period pink, its slightly salmon and dusky.

This pink seems to work particularly well in bathrooms, although I don't suppose you are lucky enough to still have an original Art Deco bathroom in your home. Adding the pink black and gold with touches of green can help you get that feel of decadence while you sip martinis in the bath. Biba have a good selection of towels for your Deco bathroom as well as perfume and toiletry bottles.

The second board features the green and black combination which I feel sums up the Art Deco look completely.

This board features a classic Deco ceiling Lamp from House Of Fraser called Tiffany New York Ceiling Pendant.  They also have black glasses (Linea Black Ghost glassware), and the gold mirror (Biba). This black and green combination works well in a dining room. The clock is from Wayfair (I shall be featuring this online store with my retro fifties look) their website is here.

glassware from
http://www.houseoffraser.co.uk/Wine+Glasses/80373,default,sc.html 

The Art Deco period ran from the mid 1920's, the term is attributed to Le Corbusier, he of the iconic chaise in black leather and chrome, and he used it describe an exhibition of 'art and industrial' in 1925.

To get you in the mood, think about what was happening around this time, it was the great age of shipping. Ocean Liners were the big thing and if you look at Deco buildings you will see that they resemble ships, with port hole windows and railings in tiers.

The latest Great Gatsby film by Baz Luhrmann will certainly get you in the right spirit of that age, Liberated ladies free from the shackles of corsets, smoking, cocktails, stylish fast cars and hedonism for those wealthy enough to be the beautiful people. 

Farrow and Ball make two colours which closely resemble the hue of pink and green synonymous with that age. Calamine Pink and Arsenic Green, they also have several shades of Black. 

Last year as part of my Painters In Residence season for Chalk Paint maker Annie Sloan I did my take on Art Deco when I made over this original piece of furniture. Can you believe I bought this cupboard and chair for 11 pounds! The Chalk Paint colour Graphite is ideal for your black wall or furniture and Annie Sloan also sells Brass Leaf for adding those Gold highlights. On this cupboard the green was Florence with dark wax. I used a crackle glaze on the doors to age the colour Florence and try to tone it to the right hue for the period. 

I added a twist to the chair with this Van Asch fabric

There was a great revival for the Art Deco period in the seventies, I can't quite find where exactly this stemmed from. There was 'Bonnie and Clyde' the film in 68 featuring the acheingly beautiful Faye Dunnaway and the not too shabby Warren Beaty. In 1976 we had a brilliant child version of the gangster and moll story in "Bugsy Malone" with a fabulous performance by the 13 year old Jodie Foster. 1974 also brought us the first film of The Great Gatsby with Robert Redford and Mia Farrow

But for me the most important thing was the move of Biba to the Big Biba store in an old department store building on Kensington High Street in 1974. This was the most amazing shop of all time, it would take me all year to explain how every detail was perfect from the ground floor right up to the roof garden with flamingos. I visited the store by bunking off school with a friend and using our dinner money saved up for the train fare. A major influence on me was not only the awareness of style and styling but the images produced to advertise the shop by my hero Sarah Moon, still an influential photographer. It may have been 1975 ish but I can close my eyes and feel how it was to be in that shop, I would give anything to be transported back to that time but with more money in my purse.

More recently the originator of Biba, Barbara Hulanicki has put her Biba brand-name to a range of products for House of Fraser. Lots of items from clothes to homeware. You could literally decorate yourself and your house with all the items from her range, so if Hollywood glamour is for you then head down to House Of Fraser.  

Art Deco is a great style to refer to if you are decorating for a man who doesn't like floral but does like antiques and vintage. The shapes are more masculine and the colour range is pretty sexy and bachelor style, much like Gatsby himself. 

This style mixes well with industrial as it brings gloss to this rough beaten style. Thinking about textures and keeping them in balance, all shiny and hard or all wooly and furry, neither is particularly appealing, but mix them up in equal portions and you are onto something. 

For the House Of Fraser glassware please click here for the link. They sell everything from the Biba range too, from clothes to towels. Perfect for party styling with a theme, maybe have a Gatsby style Christmas party, how very chic that would be.

For all things Farrow & Ball click here where you can find stockists or order online.

For the complete Biba range click here and for Annie Sloan Chalk Paints click here 

All the above can also be found on my Pinterest board and the links on there will also take you to the source.  

Seaside colours - DIY Kitchen ideas

Where I live in Buckinghamshire is about as far from the coast as anywhere you can get. Is it any wonder then, that during August I long for the seaside, maybe because as a youngster my Dad would pack me and Mum off to Broadstairs for the school holidays to stay in his Uncle Toms guest house, right next door to Oliver Postgate's house on Chandos Square.  Yes, it was the sixties, ice cream parlours in shades of pastel, donkey rides, sand castles and the gift shops, with things made from shells.

So this week, when it seems like the world and his wife have gone to Cornwall, or some other cool resort in the UK or abroad, I've been hankering for the colours of the seaside.

This is also my birthday month and so often August treats are trips to the coast and a few extravagant purchases. These often take the form of something for the home, the first time I did this was my fridge freezer ..... the pale blue SMEG

When we moved to this house a lot needed doing to update it. As Im not much of a cook and neither is the other half, the kitchen was a dilema, I didn't want to spend lots of money on it, also the units were wood and it seemed a shame to rip them out. The kitchen isn't very big but for us its totally sufficient, and, at the end of the day, it really is just a home for pretty kitchenalia.  Oh yes, not being able to cook doesn't damper the spirit for collecting associated objects.

Actually, I think that the lack of ability to create gourmet food can be balanced with presentation, its smoke and mirrors at my dinner parties.

Last month my kettle broke, and I was getting fed up with our cheapish toaster which looked nice, but took forever to toast the bread for some reason. 

I had a look around for a nice kettle only to discover that SMEG do beautiful ones, and, of course, I also learnt they do gorgeous toasters too.  

Why is it that whenever you get something new and shiny it shows up how tired its surroundings are.  We had painted the kitchen cupboards in a few different colours, quite muted but with different coloured knobs on each cupboard. The top cupboards in a classic Farrow and Ball white (Pointing I think), still looked good and throws the light around the room but the bottom units were a bit dull in comparison to the new appliances so I mixed up a few different paints to zshusch them up.

Since working with Annie Sloan Chalk Paints as a Painter In Residence, I find that barely a day goes by without me painting something.  Often a backdrop for photos where I like to see how different colours work together, and sometimes on walls and furniture.

On one side of the kitchen where I now have my swanky new Nutribullet in purple, I have painted the bottom units with red details and stencils for a folk look. Choosing some different knobs from Anthropolgie to add the finishing details.

On the other side of the kitchen where the new SMEG kettle and toaster sit, I brightened up the units with a variation of paints that I mixed myself. Using up leftovers and tester pots. 

While I was painting the kitchen one morning over breakfast, I was taken to thinking about Vanessa Bell, having just watched the new tv show about the Bloomsbury Set "Life In Squares". 

I spend a lot of time on instagram, posting photos of colourful inspiration, and as it has a square format I started to think that my life is in squares too. Annie Sloan was kind enough to say that my style was reminiscent of The Bloomsbury Painters, in that every surface of my home is painted and decorated. As these were the first true bohemians I can see why my style is considered Bohemian Chic.

I snapped this through the window at Charleston House, home of Vanessa Bell

The other half bought me a Nutribullet and I started to use it this week.  I was sceptical but a few friends raved about it so, Im giving it a go and so far so good, I feel slimmer, less bloated and have a bit more energy.  

Nothing adds a splash of colour to the kitchen like a fruit bowl full to the brim. 

I may try to post a few of my favourite nutribullet drink combinations, so far I definitely like to add almond milk in the morning with some porridge oats and dates. 

If your kitchen needs a spruce up and the kitchen cupboard doors are wood, or wood veneer, then perhaps think about painting them. I find that Farrow & Ball paint lasts very well and can be wiped down, but you will need to prime and undercoat well before using it. 

Chalk Paint is a quicker fix but has to be well waxed to protect it from splashes and spills. If you clean a lot then the chalk paint may not be the best if you want to scrub it regularly.

I'm now looking at the Amara site for ideas about what else would look good, perhaps a Delonghi Espresso maker in pale blue ... mmm
also some new linens like the animal prints from Thornback & Peel.

I have a pinterest board for Bloomsbury Painters and styles over at https://www.pinterest.com/JaniceIssitt/bloomsbury-art-styles/

Here you can see the work of Vanessa Bell and the home where she lived called Charleston House. 

Next week I may not be blogging as its my birthday and Im going to Amsterdam.  I will of course be taking lots of photos there and Im keeping an open mind about what I will find to report back on, but I have a suspicion there will be some tattoos and flea markets covered.

Inside Out

Yay, we have some summer here in the UK, at least a whole weeks worth so far! It takes a lot to get me out of the house, so when I venture forth I like to take a few luxuries with me, even if its only into my own garden.  I have a lot of old furniture thats been used as props for photos, or projects and such. Some of it ends up in the garden shed as we can't bear to part with it, one such item being a single wooden bed that I bought on e-bay.

This was such a good purchase as it's assembled in minutes, just slotting pieces of wood together and laying the slats down, when it's taken apart it hardly takes up any space. And so, we set it up in a cool spot in the garden.

cushions and scarves are from Van Asch

We had some old foam in the shed as well so used that as the mattress and then took a lovely Kantha quilt and cushions out from the house.

Another old prop was the screen which I use as backdrops in photos, painting it different colours, this one has some stencilling on that I did a while back. 

I also made a wig-wam for myself, to keep the sun off and for my blind cat Coco to get cool in. I started off by pegging Kantha quilts to the washing line and then giving structure with bamboo poles and bits of wood we had lying around.  We keep a couple of old rugs in the shed as well for a ground covering.

By the evening we had got quite into the spirit of things, and took some chairs out to the paddock at the end of the garden.  To add to the fun my other half took some light shades out and hung them in the trees.

There are alpacas at the bottom of the garden, I think you can just see them, they are very curious creatures. We sat and watched them from our garden palace.

Another favourite spot for us is the lavender farm at Hitchin. We took half the house with us and bought food from their cafe as they do such nice platters.

All these items are from Holy Cow Home 

enormous bag from The Future Kept

All items from Holy Cow Home

cushions from Van Asch, quilt mug and plates from Holy Cow Home

At Hitchen Lavender you pay 4.50 each to go into the lavender fields and pick your own, the sound of buzzing bees is hypnotic. 

There are open air film showings in August so we shall hopefully return, maybe for my birthday.

Have a lovely time wherever you are. 

Colour Inspiration in Nature

I was wandering around the garden snipping at some flowers for vases when I had the thought that often the word 'natural' is used to describe an off white, pale beige sort of colour.  Actually, when you look at natural plant life every colour is there and in such vibrancy, particularly in countries like India where the Bouganvillea is the most dazzling pink you have ever seen.

Colour combinations are my passion, I try to find clashing colours to see how they make me feel, I constantly push the limit of experimentation to experience the emotions in colours. Does that sound a bit hippy drippy, sorry. 

Sorry about the deceased bird, and without launching into the dead parrot sketch from Monty Python, let me explain. I have four cats and live in the countryside so mice and birds are sadly par for the course. We do try to re-dress the balance by rescuing wildlife for a hospital and do our best to liberate them if they still have life.

This bird was so beautiful I just wanted to photograph it. 

The colour of these yellow and pink roses is almost sherbet like. 

This colour combination makes my mouth water, the pink rose, blue delphinium, offset by the pale turquoise/aqua of the plate. Looking at this I could see it working on a wall, the main colour being the dreamy plate colour with a stencil or wash containing the darker blue, violet, green and pinks.

All the background colours here are using Annie Sloan chalk paint which I have mixed myself and worked several colours together with water.                                                  

I would love to hear about your favourite colour combinations, I have a pinterest board called Paint Passion where I've invited some guest pinners to join me and we are picking interesting textures and moods created with paint. 

Individuality is about stepping to one side of what everyone else is doing, not playing it safe and definitely not playing by the rules, do that and you will look and become one of the sheep.  Me I'd rather be a Lion, one that wears a big purple hat. 

Great artists the world over have contributed many theories about paint, colour and nature affecting the human soul. Jeff Koons said that his father taught him to think - how do turquoise and gold make you feel, now think of how black and red make you feel. It's different right?  Hundertwasser actually believed that "The straight line leads to the downfall of humanity", that there are no straight lines in nature, only those created by man, therefore the straight line is ungodly.

So heres my advice, colour outside the lines, be a Lion not a sheep.   

Warning - by Jenny Joseph

When I am an old woman I shall wear purple

With a red hat which doesn't go, and doesn't suit me.
And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves
And satin sandals, and say we've no money for butter.
I shall sit down on the pavement when I'm tired
And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells
And run my stick along the public railings
And make up for the sobriety of my youth.
I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
And pick flowers in other people's gardens
And learn to spit.

Urban Jungle Bloggers and Woven Wall Hangings

Im really quite excited at the moment by two elements of interior styling and the use of colour. One of these elements is the re-discovery of house plants through the network of Urban Jungle Bloggers and the other is woven wall hangings.

If you are wondering what Urban Jungle Bloggers is all about then let me give you an idea here.  Set up by two lovely souls, Igor and Judith, they have brought an online community together of people who love house plants.  At first I thought it was for people living in the city but now I've met Igor and Judith I realise its for everyone who likes plants in their home and who like to style with them. 

As I've mentioned before, I attended a blogging conference a few weeks ago, primarily to meet in person the people behind some of the most inspiring things on the internet.  Bloggers are people who often are working in complete isolation and this can become far too inward looking if you're not careful. So when you meet the creators of a cool online community and they are really nice with a great philosophy and attitude, its a bonus for sure.

Having travelled extensively when I was in the music business, to over 42 countries around the globe, you find that some nations have very cool attitudes to life and I think that this is exuded by Igor and Judith in bucket loads. Their 'no rules' approach and philosophy is so rare these days, the idea to facilitate the meeting (virtually) of like minded people for no financial reason is a Karma which will return to them Im sure. This is also something I would love to emulate in my #paintpassion community.

Setting a theme monthly to their house plant stylings Im delighted to say that in my first month they have chosen my area - colour - to be the topic, giving it the hashtag #plantcolorpop (and don't forget its the American spelling of color not the English spelling - Colour.

Since working with Annie Sloan's Chalk Paint(tm)for Painters In Residence, Ive continued to explore this paints properties and abilities. Becoming more and more free with my approach I've been developing a technique of working with a wet brush and just dipping the same brush into different colours, then working it with water and so on, to blend and wash.  Ive chosen to do this on some back boards as a way to practice but Im intending to expand onto canvases too.

The backboards give me the possibilities to try out colour combinations and see how they work with different objects on and around them.  So to my third element here, the woven wall hanging.

I studied textile and embroidery for A level in the late 1970's, so the revival of the this type of wall hanging has amused me enormously. Its been a right trip (in the hippy sense of the word) to pick it up again and be able to play around with it for interior styling. 

Last weekend I went to Yarnspiration2015, a day of workshops and socialising for people who love their yarns, like alcoholics anonymous for wool hoarders - where do you keep your hidden stash?, did you secretly spend the housekeeping on cashmere and silk yarn, oh the confessions.  Hello my name is Janice and Im a yarnoholic.

It's Fibre East at the end of July, a big yarn related show which I shall be popping along to and reporting back on.  Its my nearest big wool show, in Ampthill. 

Anyway, back to the wall hangings, Ive tried two on the small basic hand loom and one utilising a tapestry frame.  I don't want to give a tutorial here yet until I feel Ive tried out a few things and can tell you the do's and don't from first hand experience. Like anything, practice makes perfect so I shall practice a bit more and let you know.  

You can find Urban Jungle Bloggers here and I'd put money on it that after looking you will be rushing off to the garden centre.

Im back off to do some more weaving and paint sploshing now, please tag me and #paintpassion so I can see what you have been up to. 

Blogtacular 2015

Blogtacular at The Royal Institution

It would be weird not to blog about a blogging conference, although Im not sure how interesting it is except to other bloggers. However there is always inspiration in colour and style to be found, especially when the hosts - Blogtacular - find such beautiful venues and sponsors.

Despite having worked on both Bond Street and Berkeley Square back in the 1980s for Polygram Records, I'd never set foot in the Royal Institution of Science. They have done wonders with the interior and surprised that is had such contemporary aspects.

it wasn't lost on me that it was Worldwide Knit In Public Day

A room full of blogging women (mostly) there was a lot of love. I actually wasn't surprised that there was so much support for each other in this community.  I find that women cut to the chase, it made it easy to network. So I found out lots of technical stuff about the layout of this thing and boring stuff like that. It was very useful to me and once its all instigated I hope it will make this blog more enjoyable to you the reader.

It was so comforting for me that one of the sponsors was Annie Sloan Chalk Paint as it gave me the chance to tell some of my fellow bloggers about it, we talked about paint quite a lot as a result and so Im starting my own hashtag photo community called #paintpassion.

Join me if you like, its anything thats painted - thats it, whatever has been changed due to the application of paint qualifies, from masterpieces in oils to old shed doors, pin it on pinterest (let me know if you want to join the board) tag it on instagram and maybe in the future lets do some blogs about it.

I was thrilled to meet many people, not least of all people behind Urban Jungle Bloggers.  Expect to see some posts and talk about plants, paint and colour.

And then we rounded off the day at West Elm on Tottenham Court Road, Ive bought some cute things to feature in my photos as well as some lovely cutlery. 

Prior to the conference we had a meal at a lovely restaurant called The Cha Cha Moon, just of Carnaby Street and behind Liberty. Another old hunting ground of mine and fond memories of lots of times spent with Metallica, whaaat, did you read that correctly, yes, I was their press officer and helped to break the band in Europe. If I did my job right then you might have heard of them.

My photos from Liberty London will be going on a blog I do for Love Stitch Heswall. A fabric shop with a cafe and studio, a place for my craft connections to collaborate. 

This part of London was a great trip down memory lane and looking back at those times from my new life, where I re-use my old skills but with different tools. The list of inspiring people at Blogtacular are too numerous to mention but I shall give them more time and proper links in forthcoming posts. 

Fellow Blogtaculars, please keep in touch.  Im hoping to move this blog onto its next level now that Im armed with all the info. 

Blogging its the future .... and the future is now. 

photo by Piers MacDonald for Blogtacular and Mollie Makes