I have for a few years now done trend posts on all things natural – and this year it’s no different. In fact, I believe this trend is really only getting stronger and with collective consciousness finally reaching a point where we understand that mother nature is a bit peeved with us, it really just makes sense. Natural can mean many different things: wood, natural fibers, leaves – as things are in nature.
But I am not going to show you beautiful images of bringing the natural trend into your home. For that, you can look at this post and this post on the wood-trend specifically. I’d like to show you a trendy DIY bowl – a project that’s been in the making since my engagement a decade-and-a-half ago.
The bowl was a gift 15 years ago, and with being abroad for the first 7 years of married life and having all of our belongings in storage, the bowl was one of those items that I wasn’t completely convinced about by the time we set up house back in South Africa. But because of the sentimental value and the fact that it is a rather large bowl that may well at some point prove useful, I kept it.
And finally it dawned on what I should do with it – PAINT! I can’t believe that it took me so long to come up with this very straight-forward solution – but that just shows you that creativity eludes us all sometimes.
I used painter’s tape to mask off the top third of the bowl, protecting the wood with a few layers of paper.
I then took my trusty Annie Sloan Chalk Paint® and using a brush, I covered the lower 2/3’s with paint. The advantage to using Annie Sloan is of course that you don’t have to prime or prep – which is ideal if you want a no-fuss paint solution.
Shop your chalk paint online here!
After removing the tape, I saw that the line wasn’t quite as straight as I had hoped – the bowl’s slanted sides threw me off it seems. So I added another layer of thinned paint over the first, creating a 2-tone effect. I did this free-hand and ended up creating a very soft and almost wavy border.
Now this bowl is a centerpiece on my dining room table. It is regularly being mistaken for a designer-original, which of course it is: I’m a designer and it’s an original! But apart from that, it’s beautiful, made from natural materials and has a trendy twist. I totally love it!
Happy making!
