Enter to Win! Contest closes Thursday

Visit Apple Box Boutique, and for every purchase of $25 or more on home decor, one-of-a-kind furniture or Chalk Paint™ and supplies, you will be entered to win an Annie Sloan Creating the French Look book and an apron!

That's a value of $70!



♥,
Apple Box Boutique

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We'd LOVE it if you shared our blog:

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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We'd LOVE it if you shared our blog:

New Annie Sloan Chalk Paint Colour: Florence

Welcome to our newest Annie Sloan Chalk Paint™ color that was inspired by the colors of the copper green mineral and semi-precious stone, malachite, and from the same family of stones as azurite and turquoise. In the 17th and 18th century it was used as a color made with verdigris but as it is a very fugitive color turning black with time so we are not aware of how it was used on woodwork in many houses.

It is a classical color found in classical Italian furniture.
(Information and photo courtesy of Annie Sloan. Text by ABB.)

Florence will be in-stock next week, and we can't wait to start painting!  Here are a few projects from around the net to inspire...

Source

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Of course, we could have tried out this gorgeous new colour on a candlestick or a piece of moulding, but true to form, our 'Chief Reimaginer' Leanne had to go big or go home.

        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"

So, we'll share the end results with you once she finishes.  For now, here is the 'sketch':

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

Based on Ciruelo Interiors PG swatch

We already love it!

♥,

Apple Box Boutique

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We'd LOVE it if you shared our blog:

Reimagined Monday: Apple Box Boutique's TV Cabinet

Last week I was fortunate to have the opportunity to write a guest blog for To A Pretty Life.  I wasn't expecting the influx of notes and FB messages, but what a nice suprise... thank you so much for your support!

In that blog, there was an image of my family room from when we were in the throes of remodeling. It seems to have taken on a life of its own, and I've been asked repeatedly about the cabinet seen in the picture.  So today I've decided to focus Reimagined Monday on how it went from a fairly hideous brown behemoth to the shabby chic "wonder" that has garnered its own fans.

Here is the picture that was posted on To A Pretty Life:

In seeking out a new console for our big screen TV, I wouldn't have guessed that the answer would be a 1970s oversized gazillion pound dresser in the ick brown so popular in that era.

But here it is, as it looked when it first arrived at the studio, in several parts:

One of the things that caught my eye about the dresser was the detail on the drawers, and the fact that they were floral.  I thought that would fit well with the Regency look I was going for (think Jane Austen) but the colour and the gold knobs had to go!

"Back in the day" when I finished this piece I hadn't yet discovered Annie Sloan Chalk Paint.  If only I'd known I could have saved myself a LOT of time and trouble!  More on this later!  For now... here is the painstaking process of reimagining this dresser:

I started by washing the dresser well with TSP (it was pretty filthy), then primed the cabinet and each of the drawers.  I used Kilz Original stainblocker.  It smells AWFUL, which is why I carry Kilz Original Ordorless at the boutique... anything to help a fellow DIYer avoid that ordeal!

After it dried, the Kilz left a 'bumpy' finish so I sanded afterward.  If you use more than one coat of primer, it is best to sand between coats as well, wiping it down afterward with a lint-free cloth.

Next, all pieces were sprayed with two coats of cream paint.  I wish I could tell you what colour it is, but it was a magic concoction of several I had on my paint bench.  All of it was Behr latex, though.

On to distressing.  I sanded with heavy and light sandpapers in areas I knew would have been worn by use. Because of the primer and the latex, this took a crazy amount of effort and time.  Then I wiped it all down again, making sure not to leave any dust or other particles.

Then came time to lacquer.  I prefer a spray and with latex I like a matt varathane finish.  Two coats with a sanding in betwen gave just the right amount of lustre and durability.

I was so excited about getting this into the space that it came in without the hardware, so that was the next project.  I didn't like the original gold knobs, so I painted them to match the pulls I purchased for the centre column of drawers.

The following pics show the some of the distressing in more detail (a bit blurry... I had a sketchy camera back then).

And finally, after it was finished and we could stand back and get that thrill one always gets when a big project is finally finished.

Here's "the big picture":

We love it, but I have to say this... before I started using Annie Sloan Chalk Paint (ASCP), I spent an inordinate amount of time and money on things like priming and primer, sanding (before, after and often between coats) and sandpaper, waiting, waiting waiting for paint to dry between coats and distressing, trying to get the lacquer right, sanding between coats of lacquer, final distressing with LOTS of elbow grease and lacquering again... you get the picture.

This dresser took me 2 full days to finish, and that was without stopping for lunch.  Grant it, I'd only painted a half-dozen furniture pieces before this so some of it might be attributed to learning curve.

Now that I know better, I use ASCP.  No priming, no sanding, no lengthy wait-time, and just a velvety wax to finish.  Having completed many similar pieces with it, I know that even back then I could have finished this dresser in a matter of a few hours and had everything set up to watch Oprah the same afternoon.

That is why we carry the chalk paint at the boutique... I know what it means to a DIYer to get a project completed quickly, have a beautiful end result and get on to the next creative idea.

Ahhhh, live and learn!

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!

In The Pink

We are feeling "in the pink" today and wanted to share some beautiful furniture sporting all the best shades... And believe us when we write that they can be just as impressive on a find, or something you already own.

Here are the lovely Annie Sloan Chalk Paint pinks... aren't they fabulous?

Antoinette

Scandinavian Pink

Henrietta

But that's not all!  Because there is very little dark pigment within, each of these paints can be mixed to create a myriad of pure shades (no getting murky or "muddy").  Just choose your combination and get stirring!  

Old White is a great colour to enhance the others:

Or get creative and find your favourite pink using bold reds!

Just imagine what you can create!  Here is the promised eye-candy:

We can't wait to get started!  How about you?

*Where not noted on images, original sources are unknown.  Please let us know if credit can be provided!

Ten Projects...One Can of Chalk Paint

As I wandered about the internet visiting some favourite blogs and websites, I stopped in at Girl in Pink, a great site about decorating, crafting and generally making the world a prettier place.

Blog owner, Amanda had heard that one can of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint would cover 'a slew of things' and decided to put it to the test.  The paint comes in single quarts and I get asked the question "How far does it go?" fairly often so wanted to share her findings... following are the results of Amanda's experiment:

Ten Projects...One Can of Chalk Paint!

Just over a month ago I purchased my first quart of Annie Sloan Chalk paint.  As much as I wanted to jump in with both feet and order a quart of each of the colors I had been admiring, I just didn't have the funds in my paint budget to allow it!  After a whole lot of perusing ASCP related blog posts and scouring photos on Pinterest, I decided to start with a quart of Old White, 2 sample pots, one of Duck Egg Blue and one of Paris Grey and a can of both the clear and dark waxes.

Every Annie Sloan Chalk Paint "review" I had read stated that this one quart of paint would cover a whole slew of projects, but exactly how many projects constitutes a whole slew?  That's what I wanted to know!  Now, having scraped the bottom of my quart of Old White, each of the sample pots and the clear wax, I am prepared to show you just how many projects my first can of chalk paint made over!



This lovely frame received 2 coats of a mixture of Duck Egg and Old White followed by clear and dark waxes.



A 24" x 36" antique mirror was made over with two coats of Old White and waxed with both clear and dark waxes.



The dark red bottom half of this vintage style milking stool was completely covered with just two coats of Duck Egg Blue.  I honestly think that it would have taken 4 coats of latex paint to do away with that red.  I painted the seat with Old White, distressed it and waxed the whole piece with clear wax only.



My antique vanity/cabinet was first painted with one coat of Old White, followed by a Duck Egg Blue/Old White mixture and sealed with both clear and dark waxes.



Prior to purchasing my chalk paint, I had applied a coat of creamy white latex paint to this end table.  Just one coat of my Old White/Paris Grey mix completed the job.  I then applied both clear and dark waxes.



My over sized oak dresser (now mantle!) mirror was complete after 2 coats of Paris Grey, followed by clear and dark waxes.



Both chair and table shown here were previously painted white and therefore only needed the one coat of Paris Grey mixed with a bit of Old White and followed with clear and dark wax.



This is another little piece that was given a coat of creamy white latex paint before it's makeover in Duck Egg Blue with clear and dark wax.

And this is where I started scraping the bottom of those cans!  The desk portion was completed.  It had received two coats of Old White, clear and dark wax all over and multiple coats of clear wax on the desk top.  I had just about finished the first coat of paint on the hutch top when the well ran dry!  I have a whole lot of the dark wax left, even though I've used it on almost all of these projects, plus several more!

I have written this post for myself just as much as I've written it for you.  I really wanted a visual of how far my initial Chalk Paint investment had taken me.  Honestly, I feel it was well worth the money.  If you've used Annie Sloan's products, you know how wonderful they are to work with, regardless of how far the paint goes.  I am happy with the number of projects I completed with my first can of paint, but I am thrilled with the quality of finishes I was able to achieve.  If you've been on the fence about whether or not to try Annie Sloan's products, I hope I've encouraged you to go for it!

Many thanks to Amanda for generously allowing us to re-post this great informational (not to mention, creative) article on our blog.  Be sure to stop by her site for fabulous ideas + projects + recipes and to follow the adventures of the Girl In Pink.