The very inspiring people at Annie Sloan have sent us a box of Chalk Paint® to play with so naturally, we had to have a painted tree this year!
Margaux did a beautiful post on our Annie Sloan Christmas Palette – it’s different and fresh and we absolutely love it! The colours are not what you might think of as traditionally festive, but the soft pink and blues with pops of bright yellow, green and new Napoleonic blue were exactly the right combination to get us excited.
Our year has been filled with lots of blue so it only made sense that we stuck to this beautifully rich colour for our tree. Strong geometric lines, a bit of ombré, a few stamps and dipped baubles and we really have summarized the year’s influences and turned them into our festive decorations – quite clever, I’d like to think!
I had to test my paint technique quite a bit before I could start on the wall. I wasn’t sure how I was going to blend the colours, but I knew what look I wanted to achieve. I played around with different brushes, cloths, foam rollers and even dripping until I was happy that I understood how I could work with the paint to get the right effect.
The edges of the tree had to be really sharp to get the full geometric effect so I measured it out against the wall using my trusty straight-edge and spirit level and carefully masked them off.
I worked with Napoleonic Blue and Old White as a neutral tone blending into the background, applying the blue on the left outline and slowly mixing it towards the white on the right outline. Apply the paint liberally so that you have a lot to smear, then use a cloth to work the colours into each other from dark to light. Chalk Paint® dries very quickly so do small sections at a time!
To finish I used a sponge roller: first from the white towards the blue and then using a clean roller, from the blue towards the white. The deep blue and by now pale baby blue don’t completely blend which give it the rough almost cubist-like colour edges down the middle.
For pops of colour, I added small baubles to the tree that don’t take anything away from its design. I bought small inexpensive ones and first sprayed about half of them with copper before I started dipping. Having some dipped with copper above and some completely covered in our chosen colour palette adds a personal touch to the baubles – either way I think they look much better than they did when I bought them! Just dip the baubles directly into the tins of paint and hang them on a rod suspended between 2 tables overnight to dry.
Because we really adore multifunctionality, this clever tree is also an advent calender! I stamped the numbers 1 to 25 in 4 rows on it so we can hang 1 bauble every day until we have a tree filled with colour on the big day! Measure out the positions of the baubles with Prestik before you start stamping to make sure that you get them evenly spaced.
Of course, no tree is complete without fairy lights so add those liberally and secure with Prestik. My string ended up being long enough that I could arrange it in a scribble to serve as a tree-topper – perfect!
Whether you have a traditional tree this year or not, I hope that you’ve been inspired to think outside the box when it comes to the festive season. And remember to shop your chalk paint online here!
Happy Trimming!
4 responses
Lyk fantasies! Ek dink nie ek kan dit al nie want hierdie klein 10 maande nuuskierige agie van my sal die liggies sommer afpluk. Ek het n oulike ding in n koffie winkel gesien vandag- baubels in n glas koekstaander. Ek het toe besluit dis net die ding vir my. Ons het nog nie kersfees versierings aangeskaf nie want ek wil seker wees dis smaakvol en stylvol en dat ek elke jaar dit sal geniet om dit uit te haal. En my koek staander staan lekker leeg so dit gaan nou n tweede doel kry. Ek hou van versatile goed. =D
great – stuur asb ‘n foto!!
It looks gorgeous and like SO much fun!
Thanks – it really was! Now if my kids will just stop taking the baubles off…!