How to get the French Willow Grey look using Annie Sloan Chalk Paint

Thanks to everyone that read my last post on How to have a great Market Stall, especially those of you that took the time to leave a comment here or on Facebook, thank you. It's a post I've been meaning to write for ages! I do have more to add to that post and will do that soon.

Tonight I'm showing you a couple of projects you've probably already spied in my market stall photos...

A trio of bar stools...

and a pair of side tables.

They started out like this...

I picked these pieces up late last week and set myself a rather mad goal to have them refinished in time to take to the market with me. 

I am nothing if not determined (my parents are smiling and nodding as they read this, lol!) and I worked hard, probably a little bit too hard, but got them done.  

I decided to try another way of getting what I call the 'french willow grey' look.  I absolutely love this look/colour - I think it works perfectly for beach house or French country style.  I've written about this before such as here (my most viewed post on my blog by far...it seems I'm not the only one that loves this look, and I think Google is my friend on this one!) Using Annie Sloan Chalk paint to achieve this method is much easier, particularly if you want this look over your whole piece of furniture, as my other method involves stripping back your surface to bare wood first.  It is still my favourite look for table tops though, and one I've used lots!

To achieve this subtle, layered timeworn look, I painted on two coats of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in French Linen, then did a top coat in Paris Grey (ever so slightly watered down - not really a wash, just a thin coat of paint, covering most of the base coat).   I distressed by hand, then clear waxed.  I could have added a whitewash layer, or a lightened Grey/White mix, or even liming wax, but for these pieces, I loved them like this. Dark wax applied sparingly would also add another dimension...so many options, only limited by your imagination!

This would also work well to update your old yellow/brown colour basket ware into French willow grey - I'd suggest watering down both colours of paint for this, and I probably would add a whitewash layer for the top coat. I wouldn't worry about sealing with wax, these baskets are often a chalky texture.

These pieces didn't find new owners on Sunday, so they are still available for sale...please contact me if you are interested in purchasing them :)