Jack (Before & After)

Happy Monday!  Ladies and gents, I’m so excited for you all to meet Jack:

If you’ve been reading the blog for a while, you may know I have a thing for Brits!  My hubby and my little boys for a start.  Part of my heart truly belongs to that little country across the pond. It is where I fell in love, where I was married and where we started our life together.  It was so wonderful seeing everyone there this summer.  If you want to read a bit about our trip you can here, here and here.  Anyway, I’ve painted a few union flags before:

John’s British Bureau:

Kate (coffee table):

And now Jack.  Gosh, where are my manners?  Do you want to see what Jack was looking like before?!?

He was a little dated.  I LOVE the legs and really that top, is just calling out for a union jack right?  Oh, I know, Luke doesn’t like me to call it a union jack unless it is on a ship so we’ll just pretend “our Jack” is on a little boat, okay?!?

To create this look I used Chalk Paint® in Aubusson.  If you don’t know how to pronounce this think of Roy Orbisson -that is what Annie Sloan told us when she visited Boston.  I painted the whole piece in this lovely French blue.  Then I did the cross sections in Old Ochre Chalk Paint®. I wanted something a little more muted than pure white and old white.

in progress – sorry about the poor basement lighting

I used Frogtape for delicate surfaces to create my red lines.  For the red I used Primer Red Chalk Paint®.  Then I used 3M’s “Clean Sand System” to sand the top.  The clean sand system enables you to attach this hand sander to your vacuum so that it sucks away all the sanding dust. This was ideal for this piece with all the paneling.  I used a medium grit sanding block for the rest of the piece, making sure to get rid of any remaining sanding dust before waxing.  Then sealed with Annie Sloan’s Clear Wax.

Here’s how Jack came out!

Gosh, I’m in love with the legs.

The Aubusson blue is so rich with the hints of wood shining through.  I took a few shots in our living room.  Thought it would give the clubby atmosphere of English pubs –

Lovely paired with white arm chairs, feathers and Chinese pottery –