Decorating & Design
December 15, 2020
DIY Holiday Paint Projects From Annie Sloan To Try This Weekend
We can always count on paint maven Annie Sloan for some festive crafts. Using her famous Chalk Paint®, she’s compiled projects that are simple enough for the kids to make, and they can be personalized to your holiday style. If there was ever a time try your hand at a signature wrap, this is the year! Scroll down to get inspired!
Note: Pricing for the paint starts at $14.95 for a 120 mL tin. Here is a list of retailers to find one near you.
Look to nature to create a woodland-inspired tablescape, complete with a mobile of dried citrus slices, twigs and pine cones suspended from a branch. No paint was used on the garland, however Bright Silver Gilding Wax was applied on the wreath to give the leaves some luster. The walls are painted in Old White; the table top is in White Chalk Paint® Wax; the table legs are Olive and Clear Wax, the chairs are Country Grey with Old White and Matte Chalk Paint® Lacquer on the floor.
Dress up the kids’ table with a paper runner, and give crackers a homespun look with a strip of humble burlap. Subtly scent linens with holiday fragrance by bundling up citrus slices and cinnamon sticks. A potato is used to make the circular patterns on the gift wrap with Pure paint. The pine cones are gilded with Bright Silver Gilding Wax for a touch of frosty sparkle.
Dried citrus slices top a natural wreath, with olive ticking used to make advent calendar bags that can be filled with treats. Natural Kraft paper is an environmental-friendly alternative to commercial wrap, while olive is a sophisticated twist on the traditional red and green holiday scheme and accents natural materials in a low-key way. Cardboard tags for the advent calendar are painted Olive and topped with Pure.
Not every house needs (or has room for) a tree. In this setup, a sparkly star steps in and takes its place. This gift wrap is made by hand, and looks charming grouped together on a bar cart. Black walls are having a major moment: in this case, it’s Chalk Paint® in Athenian Black, while Emperor’s Silk is brushed onto the bar cart to make it pop. Large polystyrene balls are given a coat of peppy hues as an alternative to traditional ornaments. The colors on the wrapping paper include Pure, Barcelona Orange, Primer Red, English Yellow, Antibes Green, Giverny and Napoleonic Blue.
To make the wrapping paper, you will need:
- A large roll of white paper
- 2 large potatoes
- Chalk Paint® in Napoleonic Blue
- Chalk Paint® in Barcelona Orange
- MixMat
- Using a knife, cut the potato in half, width ways to create two circles, then cut the design into the flat surface. Remember that the areas removed will be negative space.
- Pour a small amount of Chalk Paint® in Napoleonic Blue and a Barcelona Orange onto a MixMat (be careful not to mix these together). Press the potato print into Chalk Paint® to load it with paint, dab it off on the MixMat so as to not overload the paper with paint.
- Apply potato to the sheet of paper, alternating between the orange and blue print. Clean your potato between turns, or concentrate on one color, leaving a space to go in with the other.
An advent calendar is strung along a Moroccan-style bunk bed in this kids’ room using the cheery ticking fabric seen on the scalloped curtain (or you can buy remedy-made fabric bags from craft stores). Hand-paint a tag to identify the days leading up to Christmas. They don’t have to be displayed sequentially — feel free to mix things up! Potato print gift wrap uses Pure, with Napoleonic Blue and Scandinavian Pink on the gift tags.
Color coordinate your wrapping paper to the advent bags, and sprinkle gifts around the house as festive decoration.
Annie Sloan