My recent decoration of the Breakfast Room left one piece of furniture standing out like a sore thumb, a cupboard I had perviously overhauled as a shabby chic affair. However, it was the wrong colours for the room I felt, and did not fit the new scheme.
I am really into using wallpaper on furniture at the moment, and spent ages scouring the net for something with dark backgrounds and botanical to compliment the room. It needed a smallish pattern as I want to use it in the inset panels on the doors.
Everything I found that I liked cost at least £90 per roll, and some were an eye-watering £270… but they are stunning.
I wanted a very punchy green for the rest of the woodwork, and I had a pot of Annie Sloane Olive Green sitting around, but it is a very dark, sludgy colour and not as eye popping as I wanted.
The green chalk paint
At this point I gave up, thinking that I could not get want I wanted on a tight budget…. BUT…. THEN….. HALLELUJAH!!!!!
I was in my local B&Q (a place I can found in very often actually – some like Prada, I like paint shops), and I found this wallpaper by Ideco Home in EXACTLY the colours I wanted for the piece… navy and chartreuse or lime. And it also only cost £14 for a roll…. Bargain!
It has beetles, flowers and everything that I need. So I promptly matched some Valspar paint to the green, it is called Chartreuse:
I painted up the cupboard in the green (eggshell, water based), and wallpapered the panels. It looked very bright and had quite a sheen… maybe a bit too bright… so I was not convinced.
So I then mixed up some of the ‘Olive’ Annie Sloane Chalk Paint with the Valspar eggshell, and mixed until I found a tone somewhere between the two. This also was great as it turned the eggshell into chalk paint, which I much prefer to paint with. A coats or two of clear wax after and I was done….
Starting to apply the new tone of green paint
I warm up my wax to make it easy to get into crevices.
Here is the finished result, I love it and it suits the room much better. I still have nearly a whole roll of the paper left over, and I was really tempted to use it on the chimeny breast, but then it all becomes a bit ‘matchy-matchy’?
The finished cabinet
Before & After:
Emma Kayne 