Around The Shop

Business is wild at TLC Vintage Collection, Central Iowa Headquarters for Chalk Paint® decorative paint by Annie Sloan! March has been absolutely busy every single minute. Annie wanted a photo of me for her Pinterest board called The People Who Sell My Paint (check it out!). So I asked my favorite photographer, son Chris Saldanha, to snap some shots around the shop. Here they are for you to enjoy too! And thank you everyone for helping make my little shop such a success! We celebrate one year anniversary as I fly down to New Orleans April 1 for the Chalk Paint® annual convention!

Pretty as You Please

At  TLC Vintage Collection here in Central Iowa, I've wanted to paint a piece of furniture like this with Chalk Paint® decorative paint by Annie Sloan. Two things made me hesitate: 1) some of the inlay is so fantastic you hate to cover it up and 2) what if I couldn't pull it off. But I think it worked just fine!

This piece is a coat of Coco all over. Then Country Grey and Duck Egg in selected areas. But we didn't start out so nice. That is why I decided to try this piece first -- it was a mess.

It had a broken caster, tons of scratches, missing hardware, chipping varnish. I went at it inside and out with STP and -- unusual for me -- did a quick light sanding to the top to get rid of any loose varnish.

I painted right over the hardware with Coco. Here is what the piece looked like after one coat Coco and then one coat each Country Grey and Duck Egg Blue in chosen parts of the design.

A coat of wax, distress, rewax and voila! Buff til your hearts content. So fun, so pretty! Picked up a couple cute knobs to give it a touch of whimsey!

Create a Life you want to Live!

Taking a Floor Up A Notch(es)!

We are taking the shop floor up a few notches with Chalk Paint® decorative paint by Annie Sloan® as well as Annie's Lacquer for floors! I wanted a vintage look, old and imperfect and that is what we have! I'm loving it and so do our customers.

We've only finished a little over 200 of the 1900 SF so far, but there will be other techniques in areas. The workshop/classroom floor area gets a lot of random painting, if you know what I mean -- LOL. So we may be looking at a splatter effect there so that the next time I drop an open can of paint you will hardly notice! (Yep, it does happen.)

I chose what was supposed to be a blizzard day for this project. Of course, the meteorologists were somewhat wrong and we had record weekday sales that day -- go figure! But the customers just worked their way around the misplaced furniture and tiptoed around the wet paint! Thank you all for your understanding.

First was to clean the already sealed floor. I chose to have that honey khaki color show through a rolled layer of French Linen as I wanted some dimension to the floor. This happened with darker and lighter areas of paint.

Remember those old plastic lace table cloths your grandma had. I had found one some time ago at a garage sale for a dollar or two. I've use parts of it as a stencil for a number of furniture projects, but never the entire thing. So here we go with a roller and Graphite!

I worked my way with the roller around the tablecloth. I was not concerned about even coverage or if I went over the edge. It was meant to look old and irregular. Then I overlapped just ever so little one stenciled area to the next.

I was thinking awesome. I must admit I loved how this was working out! I must warn you that after this many "circles" the tablecloth gets pretty heavy and messy with residue paint. It starts becoming sticky -- so 200 SF is about the limit or you need to rinse it off after a while. I managed to complete the whole area I had cleared for that day. Final step -- to coats of Lacquer rolled on with time to dry in between. The lacquer comes in liters and should be poured out into another container and stirred before putting into a roller pan. I used one of those oval plastic ice cream containers which works great and can be sealed up with the lid if you don't use it all!

 

You need to allow the floor to dry overnight before walking on it. I found it best to wear socks rather than shoes when applying the second coat so I didn't pull up any paint and lacquer from the first coat with my tennies. The test of this floor came over the weekend when water came into the shop from the floor above. Although water sat on parts of the floor, it held up fine. In the future I will simply clean it with a swifter! I have also painted and lacquered our wood laminate floor in our home powder room and it is working perfectly after many months!

 

This project took two quarts of French Linen, one quart of Graphite and a little over two liters of Lacquer.

Back to my 4-H Days!

I loved 4-H, and all those years of projects and hauling things to the Pocahontas County Fair has paid off in many ways during my life. But I must admit that it is probably due to Lanore Thumma and Shirley Ludwig up in Laurens, IA who were the Swan Lake Everreadies (don't laugh) leaders, that I can make a pleat, a dart, do hidden stitch and refinish a piece of furniture! I can still repeat the 4-H pledge!

 

The best change since then is a miraculous paint that allows you to paint over most anything without stripping or priming! How happy I am not to be working with caustic stripper something we were not so fortunate to have 45 years ago. But today I get to combine to of the three different year curriculums we had -- sewing and home furnishings -- in my new life as an artisan!

 

 

 

Thank goodness that Annie Sloan came along and 23 years ago developed this awesome Chalk Paint® decorative paint for me to get involved with and that around ten years ago, a woman named Lisa Rickert discovered it hidden away in England and brought it to us across the big pond.

 

Best yet, Chalk Paint® is made right here in the Midwest by Davis Paint Company in Kansas City!

Plus it is ever so green and is saving a lot of old stuff from going to the landfill. From old barn wood to shipping pallets to vintage furniture, repurposers, upcyclers and decorators are making homes and offices more interesting by incorporating the past. And that makes me feel, downright patriotic!

 

So let's keep on "Making the better best and the best better!" What have you repurposed today?© by TLC Vintage Collection!