This wooden chest is made out of really solid pine, but it was painted in a very shiny, very yellow varnish and I wanted to give it a more sophisticated look.
I painted two coats of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint™ in Graphite to begin with and then gave the whole piece a coat of clear wax followed by a coat of dark wax. The Graphite colour becomes really deep and rich when coated with the dark wax. For this project, I tried something a little different for the stencilling by using a pearlised white paint. It has a lovely subtle shimmer and translucence.
As usual, the stencil layout wasn’t planned in advance. I began with the outside border on the top and then gradually built the design up around it. To my credit, I managed to leave some of the surface plain. I really lose myself in the process of stencilling and sometimes I just need to stop but I’m having such a nice time that I just carry on!!
I even managed to leave the interior unpainted, but I did add the Jaipur Stencil as a little surprise!
This piece is called Oberoi Stencilled Chest, because when I travelled regularly to India, I used to stayed in the Oberoi Hotel. It was full of beautiful pieces of decorative furniture which have obviously inspired me.
This is the finished piece, you can find it here.
Decorate Decorate 