Someone emailed me the other day about sharing my kitchen and my fireplace mantel… “I was wondering if you were going to share details about how you painted your kitchen cabinets and your fireplace mantel you shared with us last year..”

We have been in our home for 4 years now.  And it goes a little like this in my little world…

I was sitting on my sofa and looking at the color on my accent wall.  I have done this countless times and countless times I thought the same thing- You have to go wall!! Yes I loved it when I painted it the first time around, but with all the changes I keep making it just didn’t match anymore and I hated looking up and seeing that color. {In case you like the old color it was Ralph Lauren Yellow Ochre)

The thing is I had already decided to paint the cabinets in the kitchen that very moment too… all my to do list projects were just jumping off the page or out of my mind at the same time!! But that’s me!! “It won’t take any time to get this done- just Go!!” {Just know that it’s a lie and it will take time- usually more than you think!}

So, I did what I always do.  I jumped up and decided to start before I thought better of the overwhelming idea.  I swiped a brush stroke across the cabinet to see if the color I wanted would truly be the color I wanted.  And guess what- It was!! Woohoo!! What color you asked on facebook?? ASCP Country Grey.  It’s one of my all time favorite colors.

But while doing that I looked back over to that wall and said, “Oh it will be real quick- let me do this first.”  So I wrapped up the brush and closed the lid tight.  Ran out to the garage and grabbed the color from the adjacent guest bath.  And away I went.  I think at that moment my mom and husband might have thought I’d gone mad.  I had.  Mad at that color staring at me.  I wanted it done before I redid my mantel.  Fall- the color of the wall I was getting rid of … was fall.  I think they told me that more than one or two times.

What was going to be real quick turned into 6 hours of painting.  Because I got the whim to redo my fireplace and built-in’s as well.  Oh Yes!! Y’all have to just love me!!

You’ve seen it completed here and here  but I didn’t share how I did it or what I used…

I still have to finish painting out the tile surround but I want to commit to a stencil and I just haven’t yet.

First I want to show you what my mantel looked like when we moved in… White all white and walls were all yellow… NOT me!!

You can see the new wall colors and change here in this post.

But I will give you a couple of photos that let you see the mantel painted out black and the old wall color.

So in an effort to bring things all together that were more of the direction I had been moving towards….

I used Annie Sloan Chalk Paint.  When you love a color you just love it.  I ordered from Robyn Story- fast & low shipping.  At the time I wasn’t selling any paint… But honestly as a person who custom paints for people… I use all product lines that I love… It’s just not that big of a deal to me!!  Anyhoo, I used Country Grey, Old White, and French Linen… I waxed it with Maison Blanche clear, and light brown, and I also used vanGogh’s French Caffeine to add even more depth along the edges and to create some shadowing.  I also used Amy Howard’s Dust of Ages…. once again being the United Nations of Painting…

I painted everything out with Country Grey.  Then I thinned out the Old White and painted it on in spots… not all over and wiped back with a lot of wet wipes.  I did the same with French Linen… this gives the illusion of depth, a sort of faux painting if you will,  and I wiped back enough to let the black show through also.  When I waxed I used the light brown first and this deepened the country grey quite a bit.  I used clear wax with the dust of ages and created a lot of depth in corners and in grooves.  And then added in the French caffeine for more shadowing and depth.  And I absolutely LOVE how it turned out.  I love my chalk paint fireplace mantel!!

I hope you will too!! Enjoy the pictures!! Remember I am still trying to decide on the stencil for the tile surround!! I think I have but then again maybe not… Why is choosing so hard when it’s your own???

Thank you for stopping in!!! & come back soon!!

 

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Redoux