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This week our March #tphmakeover winner pick up her finished piece and in her words she was "blown away with how her Grandma's buffet turned out!" We are so glad she is happy. Elisa wanted a bright finish and mentioned two colours... read on to see the transformation and the steps we took to create this look. Thank you Elisa for trusting us!

We started by giving the whole piece a good solid coat of Florence Chalk Paint™. 

Once that was dry we dry brushed two colours letting each one dry between coats.  As Elisa loved bright colours, we choose Giverney and Aubusson Blue. 

We gave the whole piece a gentle sand with a fine sanding block to soften the dry brush lines and followed with a coat of Clear Wax.

We love how the colours make her metallic hardware pop!

Transforming an old forgotten piece of furniture into a worthy centre-piece couldn't be easier with Chalk paint™! Stop by the store and check out our selection of Chalk Paint™ colours and anything else you need to start your own DIY project. Make sure to also follow us on Instagram for hints, tips and inspiration!

There is still time to enter April's #TPHMonthlyMakeover. Closing date for entries is the 14th April but any entries submitted too late for the April contest will be entered into the May edition! Click here for full entry instructions!

Annie Sloan’s newsletter is always an excellent source of inspiration for all things chalk paint™ and this month has not disappointed! She has so many great ideas to help inspire us to try new kitchen design ideas and techniques. Every kitchen should have a character. Some capture a style that’s sleek and cool, while others are more comfy and colourful. If you have fallen out of love with your kitchen, but are daunted by the idea of updating it, you are not alone! To renovate your kitchen to suit your style can be time consuming and incredibly expensive.

However, Annie describes a number of less disruptive, more affordable and fun ways to breathe new life into your kitchen – by refreshing it with Chalk Paint™!

Cool & Urban Kitchens

If you like kitchens to be cool, urban and with an industrial twist, it’s best to stick with steely greys and neutrals. Photographer and Chalk Paint™ user Paul Massey used Chalk Paint™ to create this relaxed warehouse style in his kitchen in London.

To achieve something similar, try a colour palette of Old White, Paris Grey and French Linen, and Annie also offers up suggestions to pair it with industrial elements such as metro tiles and pendant lamps to really make your kitchen POP!

Country Cottage Kitchens

For a more country-cottage look, try out the classic combination of bare wood with pale creams or whites. You can see this done here on a vintage sideboard, but you could also do the same on your kitchen cabinets or kitchen island. For the cabinet doors, you could use Original, Cream or Old White.

Remember, if you don't have the right type of wood for this look, you can always fake it! In fact, Annie Sloan confessed to cheating by using Chalk Paint™ Wax to give the orange pine that rich mahogany look.

Scandinavian Simplicity

If you want something a little bolder, why not go monochrome? At once both modern and retro, sticking to a monochrome palette is also a beautiful way to add a slightly Scandinavian vibe to your kitchen.

Another fellow Annie Sloan Stockist in Gällstad, Sweden, Trendrummet has done this gorgeously in their kitchen, painting the wood panelled walls with Chalk Paint™ in Graphite. Pair the black with Pure for a crisp finish.

One of the most frequently asked question when it comes to updating your kitchens is 'how do I seal it?' Regardless of style, you must finish the paint with either Wax or Lacquer. We much prefer the finish of Chalk Paint™ Wax, where you can add two to three coats on top of the paintwork using one of our Wax Brushes and wiping away the excess wax as you go.

You can, of course, use Lacquer on the cabinets instead. But do test the Lacquer over the paint on an inconspicuous area first to make sure there isn't any bleed through. Whether you choose Wax or Lacquer to finish your work, make sure that you give your kitchens a thorough clean before transforming them with my paint and products.

If a kitchen renovation is on top of your list, make sure to come see us at The Passionate Home! We are always happy to help with any hints, tips or techniques and of course we have everything you need to up your Chalk Paint™ game!

So you’ve seen what can be achieved with a pot of Annie Sloan’s Chalk Paint by your side and now you’ve decided you want to get in on all the fun! If you are a beginner to the world of Chalk Paint™ (or even a seasoned pro), Unfolded.com has compiled some simple but creative DIY decor ideas that’ll help get your DIY Chalk Paint™ game going!

DIY Brushstroke Painted Lamp

First up and just like all the ideas here, have been created using Chalk Paint™. This brushstroke painted lamp by lifestyle blogger Bee of Windgate Lane is actually a recreation of a much more expensive designer lamp she fell in love with but couldn’t swallow the $400 price tag – and why should she when she could recreate the look on her own? Armed with a $12 lamp she found at the craft store, Bee painted the base with a few coats of Pure White before adding haphazard swirls of Aubusson Blue to complete the look. After all, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery…

Cute Kitchen Utensils

This idea was born out of pure tiredness from looking at boring old bread boards and wooden utensils on her kitchen counter. So Katrina Chambers, lifestyle and design blogger decided to give them a little hit of colour with a combination of Antibes Green, Antoinette, Barcelona Orange, Provence, Graphite and Pure White. Once completely cured, both Chalk Paint™ and Chalk Paint™ Wax are food safe so Katrina can continue to use these when entertaining at home!

Upscale An Older Piece

The beauty of DIY projects like these is how you can take seemingly worthless old pieces of furniture and turn them into one of a kind pieces that become the centre of the room! Another easy DIY décor idea is to upcycle a TV tray like lifestyle blogger Tiffany of offbeat + inspired did. Tiffany used Paris Grey and Old White to turn this $1 garage sale into a one of a kind piece that really has a fresh and dare we say it, expensive look!

Use Chalk Paint Outdoors too!

Last but certainly not least is a series of garden pots painted by one of Annie Sloan’s former Painters in Residence Beau Ford of Drip Designs Furniture in Western Australia. Beau took some old garden pots and used a very simple technique to give a striking finish! She used Coco, Provence, Greek Blue, Pure White, custom berry red and just painted very sloppily to achieve the finish she was going for - isn’t it awesome?

Hopefully you know by now that DIY projects don’t need to be difficult or detailed, in fact sometimes the most simple ideas are the ones that work out best (and get the most attention from guests). So now is the time to upcycle that coffee table or bench that you’ve always wanted to refresh!

Be sure to stop by The Passionate Home and pick up some hints and tips while choosing which Chalk Paint™ colours you want to use, we have everything you need!  

On trend colours come and go but the effect they have on your home is huge! Including that colour that just transforms the whole room is something that we all want to achieve and this is made that bit more achievable with the expertise of Annie Sloan. With everything from hints and tips, to the hottest upcoming trends and technniques, Annie shares her thoughts through her monthly newsletter.

Here, she discusses how terracotta hues are being tipped as one of the strongest trends for interiors in 2017 and we have already began to see some beautifully earthy pinkish tones cropping up all over the place!

Scandinavian Pink fits this trend perfectly.  Annie shows us a couple of examples of how to get the most out of this versatile colour...  

This chest of drawers was started by painting the piece in Scandinavian Pink and then accents of Barcelona Orange, Florence and French Linen were added to create a textured finish, full of depth.

The most eagle eyed amongst you might have spotted another colour that has featured heavily in these projects, both in the background, and also on the pieces themselves...Graphite!

Pink and black is not a colour combination that we are normally drawn to, but using the background of a black wall to make a piece of painted furniture pop really works!      

The above piece by a fellow Chalk Paint™ stockist in Lisbon, Portugal, Atelier Auténtico is painted in Graphite and a mix of Scandinavian Pink and Old White, it looks amazing right?

We are so pleased that Andrea was the first winner of monthly #TPHMakeover contest, and even more thrilled with how her grandmother's stereo cabinet turned out!

 The cabinet needed some love to bring it into today's decor and we decided to use Old White and Paris Grey Chalk Paint™ by Annie Sloan. 

We painted the entire piece with Old White and used a wash of Paris Grey overtop and slightly distressed it. We like to use a very little amount of water preferring to use a wet rag to do the wiping.

We removed the old fabric from around the speakers to reveal the wood that we painted with Graphite paint quite thick, creating lots of texture.

For the finishing touch, we used white wax to enhances and highlights the texture. 

We love how it turned out and we're super excited to have Andrea see it.

Let us know what you think of the transformation in the comments below, enter again to be our next winner on February 15! Details on how to enter are here.

Join us for one of our upcoming workshops. You won't just go home with a beautiful project, you will go home feeling empowered and confident to tackle any home improvement project...