Cartouche Green

When put to task

choosing ONE color

from the 

Amy Howard at Home 

One Step Paint collection,

we were stumped...

How to choose?

They are ALL gorgeous! 

We use a lot of greys,

but we wanted something different

Vintage Affliction caught our eye, 

as did Chinese Red

but we both really, REALLY

loved Cartouche Green

(plus, it's the same color as our logo!)

When I was in elementary school,

all things Egyptian were very popular

Our home had gold leafed Pharaoh heads,

papyrus art, and who knows what else...

but the item I coveted most?

A cartouche necklace

Sadly, I never got one...

but now I have Cartouche Green instead!

(and Pharoah's gold on the hardware in homage to the namesake...)

If you are not already familiar with Amy Howard's product line,

go look...like, now...we'll wait

Amazing products, right?

Let me tell you a bit about our experience with the One Step Paint

It went on a bit thicker than it did the other day,

probably because the surface I was applying to was different

Two coats provided beautiful coverage

We opted to seal the surface with Amy's light wax

See that gorgeous sheen?

That's from buffing with a cloth, for about three seconds

Not exaggerating! 

Waxing and buffing this ENTIRE dresser took us less than 15 minutes

(and our arms were NOT limp spaghetti after!)

The light wax resembles pudding

and frankly, the color is a bit alarming in the jar

(fine, I'll say it. It reminded me of baby poop)

but FEAR NOT!!

it added the slightest bit of warmth to the color,

making it a tad deeper and more rich

without completely changing the color

Here's where we entered foreign territory...

using dark wax SPARINGLY and very lightly

Usually, I really love the look of dark wax settling into the brushstrokes

but in this instance, I wanted the color to remain true

and the piece to look fresh

We also used Dust of Ages over the dark wax...

on this color, it didn't make a tremendous difference,

but we'll definitely try it again with other colors

One of our biggest "peeves" if you will about most chalk-type paints

is that when buffing the wax or burnishing the surface, 

the high relief areas always distress slightly

If we were after that look,  great!

 Sometimes, however,  we don't want any distressing,

so it's annoying when the raised edges on the drawer faces 

or the sharper points on the lip wear away

with very little pressure

We're not alone here, right?  

Please tell me this happens to you, too!

Guess what?  Didn't happen with this product

Not a single speck of paint budged

Clearly, we did not distress this piece,

so we'll have to let you know how it distresses

in the future

(cause we are FOR SURE 

using this product again..

and again..

and again...)

It takes a lot to impress us...

we pretty much have "our" products we trust and love

so paint and/or wax has to be pretty great to hold our attention

This paint and wax?

Yeah, it's pretty great!