Vintage Tool Box - mixing new colours using Annie Sloan Chalk Paint

Yesterday I had a bit of a play with mixing the Annie Sloan Chalk Paint colours I was given - Antibes Green and Old White.

As you know if you've been reading here for a while, I have a bit of an obsession for that perfect shade of 'vintage' green and I hoped I could make it with Chalk Paint™.

This was in fact my deciding factor for choosing the colours that I did...the fact that I loved the Antibes Green as is was a complete surprise... and bonus!

This was the piece I decided to practice on...a cute vintage tool box...

It was a bit mucky inside so I gave it a sand down to remove the ring and the crayon mark.  A wipe down and a blow with my air compressor got rid of the rest.

I mixed six parts Old White with one part Antibes Green and got this...

Lots lighter than what I started with...my Mum said it looked like spearmint milkshake :)

Here it is on the tool box, I did two coats then clear waxed and dark waxed to give it a bit of grunge factor.

I forgot to take a photo of it before I waxed it, but did take this one mid-waxing to show you how the colour changes once clear wax is applied:

See how the colour deepens, and it also brings out the timber tones where I have distressed it.

As I've mentioned before I am not a good photographer (actually I probably don't need to spell that out, lol!) and I had a hard time capturing the true colour of this piece, which is why you see about 10 different shades of green in my photos! You'll have to trust me that it is lovely, exactly what I wanted, and my perfect 'vintage green'.  A couple that have won my heart in the past are Porter's Paints 'Glossodia' and 'Palm Green'.  But this mix is better :)

I chose not to dark wax the inside, I thought it was more 'authentic' that way.

I love the sheen you can see on the handle in the above photo.  Annie Sloan wax is the best wax I've ever used, I love how quickly it dries and if buffs up beautifully.

Here's a close up of the side.  Using dark wax to 'antique' a painted piece can take a bit of practice to get right, but as I've said on here before, as long as you use it over the top of clear wax, mistakes can be 'rubbed out'.  

(You just rub more clear wax over the top of any excess dark wax and it comes off).

Here are a couple of my favourite 'dark-wax-antiqued' pieces:

(French Country Sideboard 2012)

(Union Jack-inspired Glory Box 2011)

I saved the best for last...this photo is the truest representation of the actual colour.

I'm happy with how this turned out and ready to give it a crack on my corner hutch now!