~ How to Create a Beautiful Antique Look with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint ~ Blues - Wet Distressed & Waxed

There's a lot more to these chalk paints then just painting a quick coat of paint and doing a little sanding! Sometime ago I read Annie Sloan discussing working with her chalk paints and waxes to get different looks. So this was an experiment to see how to make a beautiful more aged look.  The finished look is really worth the work. (Click on Continue Reading Link Below for more Information.)

Above is the old mirror in its original, dull, gold finish and it just didn't work, so it was the perfect candidate for playing with the paints and wax since it had a great shape and nice details.

The first color was the bright ASCP Provence for layer one. For layer 2, I mixed the Provence with  Paris Grey.  But  areas of the Provence were left to show a bit more. This needed to dry just a little while so that I do a light amount of dry brushing with white, either Pure White or Old White will do. In the picture above, you can see small amounts of the white showing; it may look like reflected light.

The next step was to do a bit of distressing with a "wet distressed" method. How much water you used depends on the look you are after. In this case, my cotton rag (t-shirts work great!) was just a little damp. And the picture above shows what it  looked like with just using a damp cotton rag to rub off some of the paint. It was a good look even at this point. I did not sanding at this point, just the wet distressing.

Usually you want to let chalk paint rest and cure for your finished project. It can take up to 30 days for it to really be fully cured. That is exactly the reason that all these steps work so well. The paint is dry to the touch, but it is not really fully cured yet. Also the paint is very matte flat. If the paint itself had a shine to it or a plastic feel like latex, it is harder to accomplish.

For the next step,  I went back and forth with dry brushing the white paint, letting it almost dry and then waxing over it until the paint began to come off, then painting again, and wiping that off in some places. Why?? As you can see, you are exposing some bits and pieces of the various layers controlling all the time how much you want of each to show and exactly where it shows.

Dark wax was applied next, it was buffed, some places got another dry brushing, then the clear wax was applied and buffed last. You just play with it and see how your piece looks with each step until you get what you want for yourself.

In the end, it looked like a very old, time worn finish. A really beautiful look!

**The paints used in the post are "Annie Sloan Chalk Paints" not to
be confused with chalkboard paint.

See Y'All Soon~