Gustavian Collection Pantry Hutch

 We've been drawn to Swedish and Country French antiques lately...

the neutrals that are soothing and beautiful

the weathered, aged paint...

yeah, it's pretty much all good! 

The paint on this piece was inspired by the antiques that 

we'd love to have in our own home

This piece took much longer than I anticipated...

funny how that goes, isn't it?

We opted for Pure White

from Annie Sloan

which contains no pigment

(cause, you know, it's WHITE...)

which meant three coats

Then, we clear waxed the whole thing

before using two different colored waxes

for an old-world look

After waxing and distressing the entire piece,

we decided to stencil a gorgeous French poem

on the back-board...

I wanted white words on Paris Grey

I used a stencil cream I purchased at the craft store...

and it seemed to work great...

UNTIL....

I applied clear wax!

Bye Bye white stenciled poem!

Moral of the story?

Only use stencil creme from Royal Design Studio!

(which is also where the stencil came from)

Did I mention I also painted the words upside-down?

It normally would not have mattered, 

however, 

this board is attached not only on the perimeter,

but also along each shelf

so the holes from the nails didn't line up

AT ALL

SOOOO....

We clearly had to repaint!

We changed to French Linen

and used Bronze Age Stencil Creme

then applied a dark wax glaze

As you can see, it worked out wonderfully!

This is such an unusual piece...

we love the fact that it's not huge,

but still tall and offers lots of storage

not to mention visual impact!

This piece is available in our Etsy Shop

Seeing Stars

Another piece from the Americana Collection

inspired by relaxed country living and

 American farmhouse style

 I've been wanting to do a piece using

Annie Sloan's Emperors Silk

and was inspired by the upcoming

Independence Day holiday...

 I wanted to avoid anything with too much of a "theme"

as I tend to tire of those pieces quickly

in my own home

but I loved the idea of a little hidden "something"

to make a special piece even more so...

 The red is so deep and rich...

I only used dark wax on this piece...

right over the paint...

(if you're going to try this, I encourage you to test first!)

 When we purchased this piece, it had issues.

many, many issues...

 now, the repairs all seem worth every second they took...

Wondering about that gorgeous navy blue 

on the drawers?

I custom mixed that color using Annie Sloan Paint

(click the link to find your local stockist)

Curious about mixing colors?

Miss Annie has a charming blog

all about color theory...

This piece is available in our Etsy Shop