Working Away

It's meant a lot of coats of paint, a lot of sanding, and still more to go, but I managed to get the whitewash finish I wanted for the inside of my FAME vignette box. The top and bottom edges of the bay window will be enclosed, that's the next step, and then I can think about some decorative elements. One thought is to add small panels to the base of the window that match the panels on the manufactured door. The upper portion of the window will be wrapped, and will be the signage for the shop.

I started with a seal coat, as MDF is very thirsty; this helps the first coat of paint to cover much better. That first coat was a pale grey Ceramcoat paint. It covered perfectly the first application, by foam brush. However, the two subsequent applications of cheap dollar store craft paint were a pain! (The first one was applied with a foam brush, the second with a foam roller.)

The cheap antique white paint I used ran out, so I had to get another bottle, and of course, the dollar store didn't carry that shade any more. Therefore, I added straw yellow Ceramcoat to the white DecoArt paint until I got a less glaring white shade. The coats are then sanded back to allow the base, grey coat to shimmer through.

The floor is wide spruce boards, painted with very watery versions of the wall paints, with a finish coat of fine bees' wax polish. This gives a subtle glow, and smells wonderful too! I had to explain the whole concept of shabby chic to my Carpenter-in-Chief, and I'm still not sure that he actually got it.

One of my beefs with some of the shabby chic I see on the internet, is the very messy way in which it is done. It doesn't mean finishes that look derelict and abandoned for years, but finishes that have been worn and lovingly repainted again and again, with wear around the edges, so to speak. I see way too much massive sanding, very out of scale, on a lot of shabby chic projects.

Colour will be added, but it will be in the contents of the vignette and in the many variations of white and grey colours I hope to introduce. We'll see how it all works out; I have until Valentine's Day to get the "build" portion done, before I am allowing myself to work on the contents.

I am also trying to figure out a good way to hinge the side of the front, so I can easily access the interior of the vignette. It may mean using several small hinges, rather than a piano-type hinge as had been suggested....