Shades of an Armoire

Sometimes it is not so clear what color to choose when painting a special vintage piece of furniture. Colors, Tints, and Shades can look very different from one piece to the next.  Painting a large Armoire, like the one above, involves a fair amount of time and energy, not to mention the cost of paint.  Any tool you can use to eliminate, or even narrow down, your color choice before you start to paint can save you from painting something more than once. 

The image above is a virtual representation of an Armoire painted in 6 different colors and shades (shades = color + black) of Annie Sloan Chalk PaintⒸ.  I didn't actually paint the Armoire 6 different colors.  Each armoire image was tinted with shades of one color. The color cards below each show the color I used. This is only meant to be a starting point, but sometimes having a comparison on an actual piece of furniture is helpful.

Here is the real Armoire and the colors I used when I painted it......

Annie Sloan Chalk Paint Green Custom Color Swatches

Here is a new page in my Annie Sloan Chalk Paint Color Swatch Book. It combines the color cards  for the additional green colors you can mix, by using Antibes Green + English Yellow, Antibes Green+ Arles and Florence + English Yellow, and Florence + Arles. It also shows the results when these new custom colors are blended with varying amounts of Pure White to make tints.

I physically mixed these colors and scanned them into my computer from my project and color journals. The colors are accurate, as much as they can be. Remember, however, actual paint samples look different than those on a computer display. The names for these additional green colors are mine and not official Annie Sloan Chalk Paint colors, although I did use ASCP to create them.  The numbers on each color card represent the equal proportion of each color to the other.  Please let me know if you have any questions. 


   Annie Sloan Chalk Paint®  You can find more color studies by clicking on the Tools tab or referring to my posts ASCP Colors + Tints  and  ASCP Colors + Shades.

I like Annie Sloan Chalk Paint  for my craft and furniture projects, but for walls nothing compares to Pure & Original Fresco Lime Paint. I love the natural variations of shades and tones the lime creates within one paint color. You have to see how gorgeous it is! Checkout my most recent interior design make overs with Fresco. It can be purchased online at www.502paint.com

P.S  Pure and Original also makes a chalk based paint called Classico in 140 colors! Its amazing too!

Color Studies/Green/Lime Green

 I 've been working on some color studies lately to expand my range of greens. One of my clients is wanting a lime green for a project, similar to the green in the photo above. A strong and powerful pop of color.  More on the actual project later. For now I am working on establishing a sample of the range of green shown on the planters.

This is a theoretical representation of the range of Lime Greens I'm looking for. My next step will be to try mixing actual paint samples to make this green.

These color cards show the results of mixing Annie Sloan Chalk Paint Antibes Green and English Yellow in varying proportions, 1:1, 2:1, and 1:2. I like to keep a record when I mix colors so I can refer to them on later projects.  Next I will mix Antibes Green with Arles for a comparison and sharing those tomorrow.

Mixing standard colors in different amounts and combinations is a great way to create a diverse and unique color palette. To see some the custom colors you can make from Annie Sloan Chalk Paint®, see my posts, Mixing for Green, Mixing for Purple, and Mixing for Orange.