Painting furniture - Annie Sloan chalk paints

I have been playing in odd moments for the last few days.  For many years we have had a boring but immensely useful little side table in dark brown wood - in fact the top was some sort of upmarket plywood.  We acquired it from my mother in law, and she'd had it for years before that - no idea where it originated.  It's very stable and sturdy, and a really useful size for moving next to the armchair, balancing the tea-tray on, gin & tonic and a bowl of nuts - whatever!  But VERY boring and dark brown, which doesn't really go with our other furniture, which is mostly either painted vintage or pine. So, having discovered the Annie Sloane paint range, I thought I would depart from my usual treatment for furniture (Tallow from Farrow & Ball) and experiment.  Hence a trip to Brecon and Kindle House, which is a stockist, and a selection of tester pots and wax.

Annie Sloan paint claims not to need prep or primer, but I did clean years of dust and accumulated polish residue gunge off, and give it a quick rub down as the varnish was coming off in places.  Then I painted one coat of Primer Red, which is a deep burgundy, left it to dry (which it does very quickly) and then applied two (and on the top surface, three) coats of Antoinette, which is a pretty shell pink (slightly lighter and less intense than it appears in the picture), diluted with a little water as I was finding it a bit gloopy.  It dries to a wonderful deep, chalky matte finish.  I then added a coat of clear wax, then distressed it subtly with fine sandpaper and waxed again.

I'm very pleased with the result - the sanding has achieved a realistic degree of distressing (I really dislike the way most painted furniture is distressed within an inch of its life, and in places it would never haver received any wear!) and the wax finish is muted and pleasing.  Altogether a great improvement on boring dark brown!