Happy Sunday everyone!  It's a gorgeous morning here in London (for a change) so I'm up early, had my usual hearty Sunday breakfast of eggs cooked with garlic, chilli, spring onions and tomatoes washed down with a pot of tea and I'm ready for the day.

I've been pretty slack in the last 12 months with my up-cycling with Annie Sloan paint.  I have so many small items that are waiting to be painted so I thought it was time I got out my brushes and paint and worked on them.  I started with a couple of small, quick and easy items - two wooden trays.  My default Annie Sloan colour is Graphite so I decided to paint both trays in this colour. 

One tray was already painted in an Annie Sloan colour 'Old Violet' but I wanted to change the colour to Graphite and use it to display all my Cloth Shop Swedish linen napkins on the kitchen table.  That's the great thing about Annie Sloan paint; you get tired of the look of an item so you paint another colour on top of it - no faffing around with sanding or undercoating, just paint directly on to any surface, be it wood, metal, china, glass, walls etc etc.  You can distress the paint finish with either sandpaper or just by rubbing hard with the Annie Sloan Clear Soft Wax. Youtube is full of short videos of how to paint and wax with Annie Sloan so if you've never used the paint before, have a look at some of the tutorials on Youtube.

I now love watching my guests choose a napkin to use at the table - they um and ah for ages because all the colours are so beautiful they can't decide.  No-one ever picks the beige napkin though!  The tray of napkins makes a great centrepiece for my table, don't you agree?

The other tray is an Edwardian wooden tray with metal and wood handles that I picked up for a tenner in a second hand shop. I painted a layer of Annie Sloan English Yellow first and then a layer of Graphite so that I could bring some of the yellow through on the rims of the tray for a more interesting finish, as you can see in the images below.  I didn't paint the handles as they are too nice to paint.  This tray is a gift for one of my clients. I was seriously toying with keeping it as I love its shape.

HELP FROM THE PROFESSIONALS

I understand that not everyone has the time or inclination to paint furniture. I am happy to help if you have any questions or concerns, and am available to revamp your pieces that need a new lease of life. Get in touch to have a chat with me.