NEW! Shop online 24/7 with The Apple Cart

Last night we stopped counting at 150+ requests for Annie Sloan Chalk Paint™  since the Alberta Stockist (distributor) suddenly discontinued their services last week and we announced we would be doing our best to get everyone their orders.  We have now signed on to become a Stockist with Annie Sloan/Annie Sloan Unfolded and are working hard behind the scenes in anticipation of the first major shipment of paint arriving next week.

With so many loyal customers patiently waiting, we knew we'd have to move fast and efficiently to offer good options to people without creating mayhem at the Boutique.

Effective today our online shop

The Apple Cart

is ready for business! 

Because of the speed with which we've launched this option, it admittedly is a bit clunky with customers having to choose their shipping option on each item rather than a complete order, but we will improve that as soon as we can! Just select the same shipping method on each of your items so that we know what to do at this end for a quick and trouble-free process. The important thing is:

we went with security over pretty 

so that all of your information is protected -- and we will not share it with anyone!

We want to get your paint and accessories to you as soon as possible, so here is the low-down on shopping with the Apple Cart, which consist of online shopping options for Annie Sloan products, Miss Mustard Seed products and the Jewelry line.

Here is what the Annie Sloan shop looks like:

Click to view larger

and the shipping options:

Click to view larger

and following is the Apple Cart after a couple of items are selected.  You can change the Quantity here, and click Update to confirm it.

Click to view larger

In this example, the customer has selected to have their order shipped with Canada Post COD.  You can also have it shipped with FedEx Ground Services or choose to pick your items up at Apple Box Boutique.

If you choose to pick up in-store, your reserved, pre-paid item(s) will be available the day following your order (when placed prior to 3:00 PM) and will be held for three days.*


After you've filled your Apple Cart, click the Check Out or PayPal button to make payment.  You will receive an email message confirming your purchase and your order will be processed in 2 - 5 days.  Depending on where you are located, shipping is generally 3 - 10 days.

It's as easy as that!

Online purchasing is available for both Annie Sloan and Miss Mustard Seed's (MMS) paint and supplies!  Not to worry about switching between the two -- just click Add to Cart in either shopping page and then pay for your Miss Mustard Seed items and your Annie Sloan selections all at once.

You will also see Jewelry as an option for purchase online.  This will take you to a secure external website where you can view the catalog and access the online system for Simply You, the company that makes all the pretty, sparkly jewelry pieces, which will be shipped to you separately.

Now all that's left is for you to

get to The Apple Cart and start shopping!

All orders are first come, first served, and with this improved service we are happy to make shopping with Apple Box Boutique quicker and easier for all of our valued customers.

Have a great day!

♥,  
Apple Box Boutique
 

*For Boutique pick-up, your reserved, pre-paid item(s) will be available the day following your order when made by 3:00 PM. Orders processed after 3:00 PM will be available two days following your order. They will be held for three days.  Please see website for additional information.

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Chalk of the Town: The Paint That Annie Built

It's true!  Canadians are raving about Annie Sloan Chalk Paint™ and it is turning up in articles across the nation. Mag Ruffman, alias ToolGirl writes a Herald Homes column for The Chronicle Herald and recently reviewed Annie Sloan Chalk Paint™ .  Here are excerpts of what she had to say:

Chalk of the Town: The Paint That Annie Built

"Last weekend I drove two hours for a can of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint. I’d been reading about this paint all over the Internet, where decor buffs have been raving about it to the point of discipleship. After my recent experiments with homemade milk paint, I didn't really believe there could be anything better, but my curiosity was piqued.

Vrooom

I screeched to a stop just 15 minutes before closing time at Kathie Jordan Design in the beautiful little town of New Hamburg. I was greeted by an effervescent young woman who I psychically divined to be Kathie Jordan, and as it turned out, I was correct. (There was only one other person in the store and it was a guy.)

Kathie showed me all of the fantastic vintage projects she’s been painting. Each piece had a silky glow and the palette was gorgeous — deep, rich, luminous. But the best part, Kathie said with a squeak of excitement, is that there’s no prep required. Annie Sloan, the fine artist who created the paint, designed it to stick to anything: plastic, glass, marble, ceramic, masonry, wood, any finish on any kind of furniture — NO PREP. Did you catch that?! No sanding, no stripping, no scraping. No matter what the finish, this stuff sticks."

How does it do that?

"Annie Sloan Chalk Paint is a kind of gesso, made from poly-vinyl-acetate (white glue), chalk whiting and pigment. Okay, I haven’t seen the actual formula, but Annie Sloan talks about glue-and-chalk formulas in her book, Paint Alchemy, and this stuff smells just like white glue and wet chalk." (ABB side note:  This is not the Annie Sloan recipe, but it does stick to anything!) 

"I bought two quarts (946ml) — ‘Old Ochre’ and ‘Versailles’ — and if I’d known how much I would like the paint, I would have bought every one of the 27 colours [sic].

I’ve been trying to figure out how to describe Annie Sloan Chalk Paint without sounding like a commercial. There are certain products that belong in an exceptional category because they’re infallible, extremely fun, utterly high-quality, eco-friendly, cost-effective and pretty. This is the first one I’ve found in a long time. Let’s dub it ‘ToolGirl Approved’ in every area.

Infallible

Seriously, you can’t screw up with this paint. It goes on like silk, covers like crazy (the instructions say that one coat is enough for most projects and I found that to be true, except with kitchens, where you want extra durability.)

Extremely fun

You’ll feel like a kid again. You’ll want to paint everything. After blasting through a bunch of furniture, I moved on to painting my kitchen cabinets, which are covered in brittle, aging alkyd. No sanding, no prep. On goes the Chalk Paint, the exact colour of the cabinets in Jasper Dale’s kitchen in Road to Avonlea (‘Versailles.’) Lovely.

Utterly high-quality

PVA is an expensive ingredient to use in paint and its inclusion makes the adherence spectacular. Cheaper binders tend to blister, lift or peel. Or smell badly. PVA is mild and sticks like, well, glue.

Eco-friendly

Ten minutes after I painted a row of cabinets in the kitchen, my extremely odour-sensitive husband cane in and couldn’t smell the paint. The formula is extremely low in volatile organic compounds (VOCs).

Cost effective

A little goes a long way. A VERY LONG way. It’s not gummy and thick like latex, it’s thin and extremely opaque. It doesn’t skin over like regular paint and it dries very quickly (10 to 30 minutes). Four stools, one huge unfinished wood table, two chairs, seven kitchen cabinets, a garden bench, baskets, glass bowls, ceramic pots, and various plastic bowls made from old LPs, and I still have more than a quart left.

Pretty

Chalk Paint has a vintage-y matte finish. If you want a satin finish, sand the surface lightly with 400-grit sandpaper and then apply a special soft wax that Annie Sloan developed to give a rich, retro lustre to any surface. Drop dead gorgeous.

If you want a translucent stain, just dilute Chalk Paint with a little water.

If you want an aged effect, apply Annie’s dark wax, which fills the grooves of brush strokes and adds exceptional patina and depth.

Because the paint contains whiting, its flat finish mimics a chalkboard so you can create a writing surface on any object.

If you don’t like a paint effect or a wax layer, just paint over it. Just keep layering until you get the effect you want.

You can tint Annie’s waxes with a bit of Chalk Paint if you want a more opaque wax.

You can create a crackle finish using a hair dryer to heat the fresh paint."

For more experiments and photos please visit ToolGirl.com.

At Apple Box Boutique we carry the full line of 30 Annie Sloan Chalk Paint™  colours + they can be mixed to create an unending array of custom shades.

Plus... and this is a BIG plus... you can paint indoors year 'round without worrying about toxins or smelliness (is that a word?) -- Now that's a product Canadians can really embrace!

♥,

Apple Box Boutique

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Project Personality: Annie Sloan -The Paint, The Person

Project Personality

with Apple Box Boutique founder Leanne Playter Korsos

As anyone who reads this blog or comes into the boutique knows, I love Annie Sloan Chalk Paint™ (ASCP). Not because it is a product we carry at Apple Box Boutique, but rather the other way around.

When I opened the boutique, selling paint was never a part of the plan. But I started to use it in my studio, and the more I used it the more I couldn't get enough of it. 

Clients who hire me for custom painting select the type of paint they'd prefer and when they see the look, colours and finish of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint™ they are always wowed. I rarely work with anything else now because of that and we all love the results.

Once word was out that the real magic was ASCP, family, friends and clients started calling me about it: 'Do you have a tin of that chalk paint?" You don't happen to have a can of ASCP in Old White do you?" "Hey... any chalk paint left over that I can have?" It became increasingly difficult to get anything done before the next call or knock on the studio door came.

SO... we ended up an Annie Sloan™ retailer and moved it into the boutique to make it available to Edmonton and area DIYers.

The reasons I love it are almost too many to name.   Three weeks ago a couple told me they bought their first can because of my sheer enthusiasm for it.  Tuesday they were back to purchase three more because they love it.  I rarely see a paint customer just once... like it was for me, it is love at first try and one can or colour is never enough.

I've started giving out cards that say:

The woman who developed this paint and whose name it carries is an artist, an author, a designer and the creative mind behind the company and she sets high standards when it comes to the development of all her products.  Annie Sloan requires them to be beautiful, easy to use and environmentally friendly.  Plus she is a genuinely nice person by all accounts and that never hurts.

Check out this terrific video... it is short yet interesting and gives good insight into the paint and the person behind it.  I haven't gone into my long list of reasons for loving this paint (today!) because it is all covered here... and I couldn't agree more.

~♥~ Leanne

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Reimagined Monday: Ahhhh, Florence!

Well, after several days of struggling with our blog... again (you may have noticed that the number of posts in the last week equals a big fat goose egg) we are back!

We'd knock on wood... but let's paint it instead! 

Today is...

Let's go back to July 6th at On The Apple Box when we announced the newest Annie Sloan Chalk Paint™ colour, Florence.  The conversation about creating a sample for the blog went something like this:

Leanne:  "Here is my primitive 'computer sketch' of my ASCP Florence project."

        Us: "Really... don't you want to try it on something small first?"

        Cue Leanne's stare of disbelief and chirping crickets.

        Us: "Right.  Well, we'll take pics"

Here is Leanne's sketch:

and here is the Florence paint swatch, extended with ASCP Old White:

Based on Ciruelo Interiors PG swatch

This is the story of what happened next, in her very own words (you might want to make a sandwich and grab a soda... that girl can chat!)

 "Hello everyone and happy Monday!

When I saw the paint chip introducing Florence to all of us in North America, it was love at first sight.  I couldn't wait to get my hands on a can and get painting!  In a second and a half I had the cabinet I wanted to reimagine sitting in its new place in my parlour... Oh the anticipation!

I think I say this every time, but that is one of my favourite things about ASCP.  I paint indoors and 'on the spot' for myself, the boutique and clients.  No more heavy hauling or worries about time of year, rain or temperature... an especially HUGE plus in the winter when you live as far north as I do.  Even the reindeer wear parkas here.  Lately they've been carrying umbrellas, which somehow seems wrong.  (Get it?  Rain Deer?  Right, sorry about that. Moving on...)  

The lovelies at Apple Box Boutique -- that's what I used to call them before that smart remark that I talk a lot -- shared my computer sketch and the colour card with you.  This is the cabinet, pre-paint and pre-my-kindergarten-version of a computer drawing:

Picture by previous owner.  Thank you!

I was inspired by an image I found on the internet a while ago, and for the life of me I cannot seem to find it again.  If this is your photo and your work, thank you for posting it and please let me know who you are so I can credit you!

I don't know if this cabinet was painted with Annie Sloan's Florence, but it has the worn, chippy look I was after and the colour is what I was dreaming about -- a deep verdigris that is reminiscent of old world paintings and oxidized copper.  Then Annie Sloan posted this image of a facade in France that made my heart skip another beat:

Finally the paint was here and no time was wasted in getting out the brushes!

To begin, hubby and I removed the top of the two-part cabinet and I set to work taking off the hardware.  I don't always do that, but the handles and pulls are lovely and I decided not to paint them.  It is much easier to paint cabinet doors while they are still on the piece so they stayed put and I worked around the hinges.

When I opened the can of Florence, it made me pause for a moment... it is so bold and bright that it could make a lot of people stop right there, but having experienced that with other ASCP colours (Emperor's Silk starts off with a big breath in as well!) I knew to be fearless and forge ahead!

I decided to start with the buffet section, painting it first with Florence then the trim and details in Old White.  When it was dry I started rubbing away some of the paint to give it a 'been around the block' look.

(Woops... messy Leanne reveal. I didn't have any felt for the feet so used beach towels to keep the cabinet from damaging the floor and a couple of garbage bags to protect from my 'Joie de Vivre' style of painting.  Others might call it wreckless abandon, but that's a story for another day.)

After a couple of hours of painting and a whole lot of second-guessing myself, I decided to really go for it with the distressing.  When it looked suitably worn out, I finished it with clear wax, then added dark wax to give it a lovely aged patina.

Here are the bits:

Flashback to the before:

... my sketch:

And this is what I ended up with, towels, bags and all:

Now to decide what to put in it!  I'll start with the precious crystal Mama just handed down to me, and then the world is my oyster!  Look out thrift stores... here I come!"

xo, Leanne

Everyone at the boutique already adores Annie Sloan Chalk Paint and now we all have BIG love for  Florence.

What do you think?  Are you loving it too?

♥,

Apple Box Boutique

Here is how to share your reimagined paint project at On the Apple Box:

Send us a description of how you used Miss Mustard Seed's Milk Paint or Annie Sloan Chalk Paint to get from your vision to the reimagined piece, before and after pictures, pictures of your project in progress or a couple of it in its finished state, and you may be highlighted on our blog!

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Get Creating with Annie Sloan Paint Books and Classes

At the boutique we do our best to share what we know about painting with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint, but it is also really helpful to have step-by-step instructions and detailed pictures... which is why we keep Annie Sloan books on hand.

Quick and Easy Paint Transformations: 50 Step-by-step Ways to Makeover Your Home for Next to Nothing

Author: Annie Sloan

With this book in one hand and a brush in the other, you can learn how to create different finishes and effects with paint to change everyday rooms and furnishings into something special, all for the price of a pot of paint. The first section of the book tells you everything you need to know before you start - how to prepare surfaces properly, choose the right paint for the right place, use the best tools and select a colour scheme that will work with the room in question. Then, the 50 different techniques are divided into nine sections: colour washing; distressing and aging; fabric effects; wood effects; stone effects; metallic effects; stencilling and printing; stripes, checks, and spots; and, varnishing and glazing. 

There are step-by-step photos showing how to achieve the finished look, backed up by inspirational photos showing the effect used on walls and doors, furniture and floors. Learn how to bring old second-hand furniture bang up to date, or how to give modern pieces a softly aged appearance, as well as ways to treat and transform floorboards, doors and plastered walls, all with the aid of a pot of paint and a brush. Whatever the style of your interiors, "Quick and Easy Paint Transformations" will show you the best way to makeover your home.

Creating the French Look

Author: Annie Sloan

The French interior evokes a way of life to aspire to, with its good food, unhurried pace and, above all, its past for which many people feel nostalgia. Developed over hundreds of years, the French look reflects all tastes, from the cultivated grandeur of the chateau to the simplicity of rural living, and can be adapted to every home, including the Mediterranean style villa and elegant town house. In this book, the look is divided into 'Chateau', 'Country', 'Provencial' and 'Parisian style', and applied to living room, kitchen and dining room, bedroom and bathroom, and to living space in the garden.

As well as describing each overall look, focusing on colours and fabrics, Annie Sloan emphasizes the details and accents required by each one, and, aided by 25 clearly explained step-by-step projects, shows how to achieve it. Among other things, she explains how to paint and distress furniture, and describes how to cover an armoire door with embroidered voile. Whatever interior you desire, this book will guide your choices from the grand statement of the painted armoire to the finishing touch of a little posy of lavender.

Annie Sloan Paint Classes

We will also be offering Annie Sloan paint classes if hands-on learning is more your style.  And when you register, you can save money by using our coupon code: APPLE.  Watch On The Apple Box  for news on upcoming class dates, or visit the ASCP Classes page on our website to request email notifications.

Whether you feel you need a little how-to info or a lot of applied assistance, we want to help you feel comfortable and prepared to take on your summer DIY painting projects and more!

♥,

Apple Box Boutique

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Project Personality: The Liebster Award

Project Personality

with Apple Box Boutique founder Leanne Playter Korsos

The Liebster Award

 

I would like to thank the academy...

Actually, I would like to thank the lovely CJ of Juniper and Roses for her very kind nomination. CJ, after reading your blog and "About" page you appear to be a kindred spirit... or my long-lost English twin. We should talk!  Let me start by saying how much I appreciate this.

I've been scouring blogland to learn more about The Liebster Award, and although there are variations on how to write about it, the meaning remains intact. So here is my best attempt at 'following the rules':

Award Description:

The Liebster Blog Award is given to up and coming bloggers who have less than 200 followers. The Meaning: Liebster is German and means sweetest, kindest, nicest, dearest, beloved, lovely, kind, pleasant, valued, cute, endearing and welcome.

Here are the rules for receiving this award:

1. Post about your win on your blog. 
2. Link back to the blogger who presented you with the award and follow their blog. 
3. Copy and paste the award button to your blog (you can right-click on the Liebster label from my page, save it to your computer, then save to your blog). 
4. Present The Liebster Award to 5 blogs that have fewer than 200 followers that you think deserve to be recognised. 
5. Let them know by leaving them a comment on their blog.

Some posts on the subject ask that you include 11 things about yourself, but I thought I'd throw a mish-mash out there from a recent email questionnaire and let you choose your favourites!  Here goes:

1. What color are your socks right now? Left: Pink, brown and white argyle, Right: Pink, brown, white and blue stripes.
2. What are you listening to right now?  My keyboard. 
3. What was the last thing you ate? Splurged on a single jelly bean. 
4. Can you drive a stick?  Yes and I am extremely good at being very bad at it. 
5. How old are you right now?  25130477 minutes old + the time it takes to answer the rest of this questionnaire. 
6. What is your favorite sport to watch on TV? Golf… it’s hysterical.
7. What is your favorite drink?  Oh… so many to choose from.  Chocolate martini, perhaps, since it is a ritual of mine to have one in every new city I visit.  Okay, so I’m incapable of lying… it could be more than one. 
8. Have you ever dyed your hair?  Yes, all the time.  My true hair colour, if I recall correctly, is cotton candy pink. 
9. Favorite food? Anything not made of animals but smothered in gorgonzola sauce. 
10. What is the last movie you watched?  Pride & Prejudice for likely the 221^st time.  I wish I were exaggerating... okay, NOW I am exaggerating.  I love that movie, unabashedly. 
11. What is your favorite day? Every single one of them. 
12. How do you vent anger?  I don’t get angry often enough to have a pattern. 
13. What was your favorite toy as a child? My imagination. 
14. What is your favorite season?   Probably garlic powder. But my favourite seasoning is spring.    Side note:  Garlic powder is good for cooking, but also for setting your makeup which is how I attracted my Greek boy.  This has also led me to believe what they say: ‘The way to man’s heart is through his stomach”.
15. Living situation? With a Renaissance man in a cozy little bungalow eternally under renovation and never with enough closet space.
16. What is on the floor of your closet right now? What isn’t on my closet floor right now. 
17. Who is the friend you have had the longest? Lisa Marie Grubwinkler Wallace Molyneaux, in part because she has a shockingly big name and is a surprisingly little person (Love you, Lis).  This year is 43 years as close friends, but really we are family. 
18. What did you do last night? Stayed up until 4:00 in the morning hanging out with my astonishing daughter Mista, talking about life, love, work and weddings, generally all in the same sentence.  The TV series Gilmore Girls was based on us. 
19. What are you afraid of most?  Money… apparently. 
20. Plain, cheese, or spicy hamburgers?  Anyone who knows me could answer this, since I am mostly made of cheese, even the holy type... it keeps my spirits up.  What?  Oh… the holey kind.  I like that too and since it is mostly air, it keeps my figure svelte.  But hold the burger.
21. Favorite dogs? It would be a quicker to ask about my least favourite dogs, to which I would respond “the hot kind”.  
22. Favorite day of the week?  Love ‘em all.
23. How many cities have you lived in? I’m not sure how to answer this, since I’ve lived on the outskirts of so many.  And isn’t ‘outskirts’ a funny word,  I mean, say it over a few times… outskirts… Yup, funny. 
24. Diamonds or pearls?  Diamonds… no, pearls…. Nope, diamonds…no… this is what I get for being a Libra. 
25. What is your favorite flower?  Fluffy, flouncy, softly floaty, floofy, cherubic flowers of all shapes and sizes.  I like the kind you bake with too.  Really?...That's a different kind of flower?  Hmmm... explains so much about my desserts.

And now for my nominations..

• Sheila at French Vanilla Home
• Joanna at To A Pretty Life
• Debra at A French Touch 
• Carrie at Hooked On Decorating and, of course
• Mista at Cinnamon Photography

A very big THANK YOU again to CJ of Juniper and Roses for honouring On The Apple Box with The Liebster Award, and for allowing me the opportunity to do the same for some of my favourite blogs!

~♥~ Leanne

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A Very Special Reimagined Monday & Miss Mustard Seed

Today is a very special Reimagined Monday because it comes with a very special announcement.

One of our favourite bloggers, and people, is Marian Parsons, a.k.a. Miss Mustard Seed.  If you've perused blogland for inspiration on Annie Sloan Chalk Paint, then you very likely know her blog and her name.   

We will be talking a lot about Miss Mustard Seed (MMS) in the future.

So from this day forward, Reimagined Monday will include makeovers and more using Annie Sloan Chalk Paint AND Miss Mustard Seed's Milk Paint.

You may be wondering what the difference is between the two, and who to say it better than Miss Mustard Seed herself: Milk Paint vs. Chalk Paint.

We will also be offering classes in Edmonton and Area to help you learn more about milk paint and get you the knowlege to confidently complete your own DIY projects!  

We'll be posting class schedules shortly.

AND we will be making the paint available for purchase ONLINE!  Watch for our new e-commerce site, coming soon!

COOL TRIVIA:  Miss Mustard Seed's Milk Paint is made in Canada by Homestead House Paint CO.

But we know you are visiting today to see some inspirational reimagined pieces, so we want to share one of Miss Mustard Seed's milk paint projects.

This is an introduction to one of the colours in this brand new designer line of paints.

Say hello to Tricycle

…it is the most wonderful shade of red and I have to say I am totally in love with this color and the dresser.

Here’s the piece before…

I scored it on Craig’s List a couple of days ago.  Someone had it listed for an outrageous price for a couple of weeks and then had to get rid of it before he moved.  He brought the price down to a basement bargain and I jumped on it.  The drawers were wonky, so my dad and husband fixed them up so they function properly.

I purchased the knobs from Hobby Lobby.  I wasn’t sure I would love them for this piece when I bought them, but they were the only ones that were large enough AND had eight knobs available.  They ended up being perfect.

My hobby horse was just the right accessory.

I really need more red in my house.  Anyway, this piece is on the truck to take to Lucketts tomorrow.

I wanted to share one last milk paint related thing.  I made an advertising chalkboard to take to the fair this weekend…

 

Reni’s logo and Laura’s sketched dresser work perfectly together and I’m so excited about the branding for my paint.  Although I’ve been testing paints, mixing colors and selecting label and packaging options, seeing it on a chalkboard makes it seem more real.  It’s just awesome and I’m so blessed.

Let's all shout a collective WOW!  We're still knocked over by her beautiful work, and there is so much more to share about the paint and the gorgeous colours coming our way.

Here is a sneak peek of just a few, especially for you:

        French Enamel                              Lucketts Green                          Typewriter                              Shutter Gray          

Breathtaking, aren't they?

♥,

Apple Box Boutique

Here is how to share your reimagined paint project at On the Apple Box:

Send us a description of how you used Annie Sloan Chalk Paint to get from your vision to the reimagined piece, before and after pictures, pictures of your project in progress or a couple of it in its finished state, and you may be highlighted on our blog!

_______________________________________

We'd LOVE it if you shared our blog: