Getting my craft on with Annie Sloan

My local high street is nicely full of makers and creatives. It’s not packed full like a North London high street, but it’s got some particular places that I’m so in love with and the Sheldon Paint shop has always been a firm favourite of mine. 

My Mum very kindly bought me a painting lesson with her, for us both to learn about how to use Annie Sloan paint in the hope that we could get together and paint the knackered old table that’s lived in her conservatory for the last 30 years! 

The lesson was held by the lovely owner Jane, and what we learned in 3 hours means I can now paint anything I want, with utter confidence and I love that about any course or lesson I go on. Walking away feeling that I’ve become a mini expert is a fab feeling. It's also a great feeling for me, to get my craft on - being creative really makes me smile which was another reason why I loved the session so much. 

5 amazing facts that I bet you didn't know about Annie Sloan paint; 

1. The paint isn’t actually made from chalk. The ‘chalk’ is simply the description of the finishing that the paint gives a surface. 

2. You don’t need to prep a surface before applying the paint - this is absolute music to my ears as the preparation for any paint job really gets on my nerves! 

3. The ONLY material that doesn’t really work that well without preparation is teak as it’s slightly too oily, but metal, plastic, wood and even material work brilliantly together. 

4. Applying a hair dryer to Annie Sloan paint makes all the difference when it comes to finishings so if you’re thinking of throwing away your old one, don’t. It will be well used, and eventually covered in paint so add this to you painting tool box as it transforms the paint instantly. 

5. Dark and clear wax does more to Annie Sloan paint than you can imagine - I’m not going to give away all that I learned in the hope that you find a stockist and head on down for the course, but all you need to know is covered during your time.

Annie Sloan has created incredible paint that’s just not used to make furniture and walls look distressed and vintage. The finish the paint gives is so forgiving that you don’t need to be perfect with your brush strokes (ideal for me), it can become a range of incredible affects, much of which is determined by a hairdryer (who knew), the colour range is so divine you’ll be spoiled for choice and mixing the colours to make your own is so encouraged you’re very likely to make a colour that no one else has created before now - how very bespoke!

A workshop that offers time for you, learning something therapeutic and creative. Can’t get better than that for me...

Head down to your local Annie Sloan stockist and get booking onto the next course - you most definitely won’t regret it.