My Annie Sloan Dining Table

In the early Spring of 2009 I just happened to see a television show on PBS with a wonderful furniture painter by the name of Annie Sloan! She was doing a demonstration of one of the projects from her latest book at the time. At the same time, we were in the process of building our summer cottage which you can read about here. My mother had given me her dining room furniture to use since it was in storage as she no longer used it. I decided that the Annie Sloan treatment would be the perfect match for it. All of this was before I even knew what a blog was, so I don’t have any before pictures!

The Queen Anne style dining set was purchased in the early 1970s, was made in the USA, and is solid cherry and in excellent condition.

After seeing the TV show, I immediately ordered the book from Amazon.

The copyright date is 2008.

The dining table project is on page 82.

The book is loaded with great pictures and instructions.

I was amazed that Annie said there was no need to sand or prep the wood first. I then started to look for the paint, only to find that it was not available in the US! When I went to order it from the UK, shipping for a small “pot” of paint was more than $85 bringing the total cost of one small can of paint to more than $100!!! Needless to say, I decided not to order it as I thought the risk was too great. So, I did it the hard way. I sanded the table and all 6 chairs! It really went rather quickly using my electric palm sander. Then I painted the base coat. I followed the instructions in the book. Annie suggested freehand drawing to give a more painterly look, so that’s what I did.

In addition to the band of silver leaf, I added a band of the wall color on either side of the silver.

The lines are not perfectly straight and I’m good with that.

I added a little motif to the chair backs for interest. The inside of the motif has silver leaf too.

I used a weak wood stain instead of dark wax to give an aged look. I also added the stain to the silver leaf to tone it down a little. The unevenness of the stain is intentional to give a look of age over time.

I was pleased with the aged look.

I used the same technique on the wood and iron chandelier that I purchased on Ebay.

While I had to put a lot of effort in to my “knock off” project, I am very pleased with the results! In case you live under a rock, Annie Sloan products are now readily available in the US and bloggers every where are singing the praises of her wonderful products. In this case, I guess you could say I was a few days early and a few dollars short!!

I’ll be linking to Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch; to Wow Us Wednesday at Savvy Southern Style; to Tips,Tidbits, and Tutorials at Stone Gable; and to the Open House Party at No Minimalist Here.Stop by each of the party links for loads of inspiration!

On a side note, some of you are aware that I have a small business, Lydia's House . com where I sell the Christmas dinnerware, Bethlehem Christmas, that I designed and had produced.

You can see more of it in this post. I have just received word that our warehouse has been sold and we will need to relocate by the end of the month!!! So, I have reduced many items to 50% off in an effort to sell before having to move. These are the lowest prices ever and will only be for 2 weeks! So, now is a great time to make a purchase if you are interested. Click on the link above to go directly to the website.