…all about Old White

If you ask this 4 year old if white is a color her answer would be no. The white crayon does not make a color on her construction paper like, say, the red one does….or like a red crayon shows up on a wall, which she knows something about. Of course she is a bit more feisty than the average. White is actual an awesome color, particularly Annie Sloan’s Old White.

Annie Sloan Old White is more versatile than any of her colors because you can create so many looks with it. It can be a clean look, white-washed, or my personal favorite tea-stained & shabby. I decided to do another video tutorial on Old White. Hope it’s helpful.

Here are some more examples from Blue Egg:

Shabby & antiqued.

There’s no dark wax on this dresser so it’s a bit of a cleaner look. Very little sanding.

Heavy sanding & distressing on this amoire.

One thing you should know that when you work with Old White is that the distressing process will be much more prominent because you are doing it to a light color. If you use dark wax you need to know that it will be DARK in those areas where applied. If you sand the piece the contrast of the wood and the white paint will make the piece look super shabby. It will be a county, shabby look, which I love. Keeping in mind that when you decide to chalk paint a piece you do not want it to look too clean and white and perfect. If you wanted that they you would go to Pottery Barn or Ikea for a dipped piece. The distressing on a white piece will make it storied & unique. Embrace it!

Another tip to note is that if you, say, have a black piece that you want to chalk paint white, know that when you sand the piece to distress it you will get shades of raw wood and then that black coming through. If it’s black, it will look weathered and cool. If it’s, say, red underneath and you don’t want any red in the room you’ll be putting that piece in DO NOT sand it. Just use the dark wax in the crevices. You know what I mean?

Got Questions? I’ll compile & post next week.

xoxo