A Grand Opening !

Yours Truly, working to prep an old chair
before painting

Again I have been quiet on this channel and will be working to post a bit more often going forward.  But with some new channels and business venture, I have been a bit busy.  Here are a few things to bring you up to date, if you aren't already Liking our Brocante in the Barossa's Facebook page or  Pinterest page.

As I mentioned before, we have a local business venture going and Ian and just launched our interior decor Brocante in the Barossa boutique yesterday, with a Grand Opening...Open for business then an Open Shop Celebration in the evening.  We have been doing heaps of work leading up to this:  business planning, logistics, supply chain, a shop fit out build, set up, and now we are open.  We still have more inventory to acquire or take delivery of, to fill the store up more...but we have the core start and are adding complementary products.  So exciting times !

Complementary colours and mixing using
the Annie Sloan Chalk Paint range,
 painted into our shop copy of the
Annie Sloan Work Book

One of the key and exciting products we are bringing to the local and regional market is the Annie Sloan product range, including the Annie Sloan Chalk Paint decorative paint.  You can read about the product on anniesloan.com  We are delighted to be an Annie Sloan stockist and Ian and I attended retailer training in Melbourne in February.  Since then we have done planning about what our initial order would be of the product and also a lot of work preparing some product displays and marketing, including local ads.

The product is very expressive artistically, and I look forward to working more with it.  I have done a couple workshops when in USA last year and also the retailer training was very informative.   I am so impressed with the product and how easily it can be used to achieve beautiful effect for furniture, walls, floors, and other items around the home.  I certainly do not see old items in my home the same way anymore--they are all getting sized up for a paint job !!

Annie Sloan Chalk Paint can be
used for gilding.  Use acrylic
gold size (fast drying) over the
painted surface, lay on the gold
(or other metal) leaf onto the size.
Seal with the soft wax.

 I have been bringing sample jars and a few tins of this paint back in my checked bags when traveling from USA to here.  It's water based paint and can travel, though TSA sure does test it to be sure its really paint (yes, they have opened the tins and the small sample jars too, a few of which have then leaked in my bag !).  I have not been able to get the Annie Sloan Soft Wax product here, as it cannot travel in commercial airlines, even in the hold.  I have been using various other products I have found, but none as easy to use or as effective as the Annie Sloan Soft Wax.  So I am delighted we got delivery of our first inventory yesterday, and I have a few tins earmarked for shop stock, so I can do some items we have painted up to sell in the boutique.

Transformation of chair I was prepping
 in top photo above.  Painted and waxed in
Deep Ocean Waters finish.

The chair to right is an example of how artistic this product can be.  This was done in a pale olive colour  called Versailles as an undercoat.  A rich warm blue base coat, called Aubusson Blue.  It is nearly teal.  The chair may look teal, but that is because I lightly distressed the Aubusson Blue to expose a bit of Versailles.  And I applied a dry brush wash of a vivid deep coppery green called Florence over the distressed parts.  The chair got sealed with a clear wax finish and then just a little  bit of antiquing wax has been used to bring out the carved detail in the back and turned spindles and legs.  The result is a finish I call Deep Ocean Waters.  It looks like the water I have seen when boating in New Zealand, when the sun is shining over the deep sea water and looks deep teal and aqua colours.  This chair is in our boutique window display (and it is for sale).

Painted finish on metal clock
frame, showing beautiful
 vivid coppery greens.

Those of you who recall my verdigris lions and other green moods in my paintings might not be surprised by this next project.  The clock here is a little IKEA hack,   I took a metal enamelled IKEA wall clock and put Annie Sloan Chalk Paint on it.  Yes, it sticks to metal !!  This is one reason I did the project, to show customers that the paint sticks to nearly all surfaces, including metal.  For paintwork, I used layers and blends of Florence, Antibes Green, and Old Ochre.  Applied a clear wax layer to seal the paint.  Then I distressed the painted finish with a very light hand.   And lightly applied a dark antiquing wax to deepen the coppery green colour.  The clock is now on the boutique wall, by our counter.

Novice job comes good.  Stencilled feature wall.

 For a feature wall in the boutique we stencilled an allover damask pattern onto the wall.  Using Royal Design Studio's Antionette Damask  stencil and Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Coco colour, which looks like hot chocolate with a bit of milk in it.  I had no prior experience and was pretty happy with the result, which looks like old fashioned block printed wall paper !  Most people who see this wall think it is wall paper, and are amazed it only took half a day to do this !  I am so impressed with the Royal Design Studio product, that we will be retailing their products in our business.  We are now putting together our first order, so hard to choose from their many gorgeous patterns !  To see more about the company and its products, see  www.royaldesignstudio.com

Laser cut letters by JAG Signs.
Letters are painted and
installed on the feature wall

Our sign writer has been busy this week.  Laser cut letters  for inside feature wall signage, and we painted them in Annie Sloan Chalk Paint colour Graphite.

Window signage !

Outside, we now have signs on the faschia marquis area.

And a best I could do in that light shot.  Showing the signs done for our windows, including the Annie Sloan stockist logo badges.

exterior signage, shown from Murray Street, Angaston

                                                                                      More soon about how its all set up inside.  We have started selling the paint.  And we have begun taking bookings for the April sessions of the Introductory Workshop series covering basics of using the Annie Sloan Chalk Paint decorative paint product.


More  in a post soon about the artistic directions planned for this business !  And as soon as the new website is ready, I will post a link to that too  (its under construction currently, another week and it will launch)

A Hot Summer Day

Timber frame clock painted in
Annie Sloan Chalk Paints, in a custom
finish I call 'Sunset.'

I've been remiss and slow to post here on the blog.  Mostly because I have been quite busy with a new venture that will be launching next month.  Our new interiors boutique Brocante in the Barossa will open in March in Angaston, South Australia.  I'll put another post about this here in coming weeks.  But for now, if you want to see a bit of sneak preview, you can find contact details on our under-construction website, www.brocante-in-the-barossa.com.  And you can also find us on Facebook www.facebook.com/BrocanteintheBarossa.  And on Pinterest at www.pinterest.com/brocantebarossa.

We are very pleased to be Annie Sloan stockists.  Annie Sloan Chalk Paint and Soft Wax products are amazing, expressive, and a lot of fun too.  Great to do up furniture and other items.  We attended stockist training in Melbourne earlier this month and learned how to create gorgeous effects and finishes with the products.  So versatile and in amazing colours too.  I am beginning to work with the samples I have on hand, ahead of getting the entire range and the inventory we will be selling.  Colour mixing and layering is a lot of fun and creates beautiful results too.  Like the frame of the  clock shown at top of the post, in a custom finish I call 'Sunset,' made of Primer Red and Barcelona, mixed and layered dark to light (so red to orange) for a glowing finish that was sealed with wax.

All 30 colours of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint dabbed into
our copy of the Annie Sloan Work Book.

Cool:  a snow cone on a hot day 

So we are busy at the moment.  I must be working on the largest punchlist since we were doing first phase of renovations here !  It was a hot hot summer day today.  38C.  One last day of the local country fair, the Angaston Show.  It is held right across the street from our house.  We went to go see the goings on.  And in a moment of reminiscence, I got a snow cone.  Have't had one in years.  But seemed just the right thing for a bit of cool on such a hot summer day !

Busy January

lovely garden statue vignette
inside Old Lucketts Store

It's been a crazy fast start to the year already.  I am currently on a work travel.  But also busy advancing plans for a new ventures in our personal life.  More on that in weeks to come !

So what to do to use time when highly jet lagged over a weekend.  Two weekends ago I was in the UK, then last weekend unexpectedly in Washington DC area.  Was supposed to be on my way towards home, but a few days delayed.  So a weekend there too.  In UK I visited Oxford again, and enjoyed that a lot.  Various shopping and looking around.  Annie Sloan Interiors where I got a (signed copy !) of her Workbook and also some more of her paint brushes.  A call in to Cath Kidston, a fave place to get a few things.  Stopped at Objects of Use, to buy black pig bristle paint brushes with stainless steel ferrules, made in Britain. There found also some amazing french made tailors measuring tapes and got pink and blue.  And a navy blue leather British satchel bag.  For dinner I stopped at Jamie Oliver's Italian restaurant and enjoyed a wonderful meal and great wine and service too.   Then Sunday, a visit to The Packhouse antique centre near Farnham in Surrey.  Found there some vintage linens.  And saw great statues and things outside, but too big to send home !

Old Lucketts Store

staircase in Old Lucketts Store

In Washington DC, I decided to do a short day trip to Frederick to check out Stylish Patina's monthly barn sale.  A nice drive once I escaped the concrete jungle path called the Beltway and I-270.  Lovely country scenery, though a bit stark in winter.  Old barns and farms on hillsides.  I found the Barn sale and it was a popular outing apparently, lots of people there and the car park full.  Lovely things inside and furniture, old bits, and pretty decorating ideas too.  Good prices.

Great mirrors with frames made of not-sure-what.  Love it !

winter sunshine streaming
through window,
french linens on armchair

old copper lightning rods,
with fluted glass balls

From there I drove 20 minutes down the road to Lucketts.  To visit the Lucketts Store.  Recommended as a fantastic place to find vintage and antiques.  And correct in that, gorgeous and charming.  Picked to the gills with interesting finds.  I found lots of things, but bought only things I can lug back in allowed checked baggage.  1940s grain sacks, 30s-50s era tablecloths and embroidered textiles, several rolls of NOS ribbons, grosgrain and satin.  Unused Vintage stickers from Germany, featuring angels and children.  And some very cool signs from a racecourse, complete with magnets on back to display them.  Seen were old lead light windows, old cabinets, and even these great copper lightning rods with aqua glass insulator balls on them.  The ladies at Lucketts store were first rate.  I'll be back next time I'm here and have a free day !

Great old freight trolley,
but would not fit in my checked bags.
Maybe next time !