Hello! Today I'm writing something a little different, something you may not know is that I'm rather crafty? Me and my mum always have little projects going on, we buy lots of cheap, wooden furniture off of Gumtree and paint it with Annie Sloan chalk paint to re-vamp it and add colour to the room. So when I was invited to do some upcycling for 'HillarysCrafternoon' I eagerly accepted! We had the lovely Becky Clarke (@diydivachick) as our teacher, she gave us a 'Blue Peter' style tutorial, the "here's what I did earlier" kind of thing! And these were the instructions we were given after the demonstration.
I chose one of the smaller shutters because I had already envisioned where I was going to hang it! It would go on the empty wall space I've been meaning to fill for ages and luckily it fits perfectly!
Annie Sloan paint is made by the paint goddesses, yes they're a thing, I've previously used it to paint a double bed, two bedside tables and a dressing table, so when I came in and saw them on the table I did a little internal scream. This day definitely inspired me to buy some more chalk paint and start a new project! So I'm currently looking on GumTree for some cheap, wooden furniture!
These were the colours we had to choose from (Provence, Duck Egg Blue, English Yellow and Paris Grey all Annie Sloan.) I chose English Yellow, a beautiful, mustard-y yellow, I'd hoped that the brightness would make up for the lack of sun in Bristol that day (boo British weather.)
The Annie Sloan paint dries very quickly and so we had a quick sandwich break and a little natter. This was my first ever blogging event so it was very interesting meeting other bloggers and learning more about the community! Once the paint had dried we had added our three Kilner jars and had the option to add the rope if we wanted to hang it. This step is optional, the shutter would also look amazing on a mantelpiece, desk or dressing table.
If you want the step by step guide on how to do this awesome upcycling activity, check out the lovely Becky Clarke's blogpost! (https://beckyclarkeinteriors.wordpress.com/)
I then used my new superchalk pen to create the labels on the Kilner Jars, ah I love a good label! As I decided to hang the shutter in my bedroom, I decided to use it to organise miscellaneous items that don't really have a 'home' in my room. I used the top jar to store hair accessories like bows and flower crowns, I put a faux flower from Ikea in the second jar with my favourite pair of Quay sunglasses hanging out. Then for the last jar, I stored some of my sharpies, emphasis on the some! I have a slight stationary addiction and there's no more room in any of my trays whoops!
Here is my upcycled shutter taking pride of place next to my window! I'm so happy with how it turned out, however after seeing the wonky picture I quickly ran upstairs to adjust it, it's all sorted now! It was such a fun day and has inspired me to crack on with some more projects involving Annie Sloan!
Thank you to Hillarys Blinds, Becky Clarke and Joe Blogs for a lovely afternoon!
Claudia x