« it was grand »

May 13th, 2012

thanks to everyone who came by the studio this weekend to celebrate our opening and say hello! (distractified by all the fun, i only had the presence of mind to pick up my camera at the very beginning and end of each event, so please excuse the lack of actual guests in these photos…the proof is in the recycling bins.) it has been such a beautiful, fun weekend.

and just like at home, setting the dates for the parties was great motivation to get things finished up – there is just one room left to go.

(the gorgeous flowers that lovely jeniffer church sent look just like the ones on the cover of annie sloan’s book, don’t you think?)

i am so grateful to my family and friends for helping me pull everything together…hanging gigantic bulletin boards, hanging lights, hanging light fixtures (all mainly at the 11th hour), for arranging and sending gorgeous, happy flowers, bringing yummy food and celebratory-type gifts, hauling and icing down drinks, and just generally for being there for me over the past months as i’ve prepared to take this leap.

in other late-breaking opening news, i am so excited about my wonderful new neighbors!   sew memphis has just opened around the corner, and midtown massage & bodywork is opening on may 28th right next door.  when you come to cooper/young, please pop by and see them too.

« b.y.o. brass class »

May 8th, 2012

we had a super-fun workshop last saturday…four lovely students (all at varying levels of experience) each brought a lamp base (3 brass, one ceramic) in for a re-vamp.  they did a fantastic job, as evidenced below:

(patty, who swears she has never painted anything before, scored this great brass lamp at the oxford goodwill for $3.99 and put the coolest crusty weathered zinc finish on it, using graphite and louis blue chalk paint as a base.)

(lisa’s lamp was rescued from their flooded hunting camp.  the brass finish was ruined, but she made it fabulous with annie sloan’s olive and old ochre, and pewter gilding wax.)

(jackie has had this ginger jar lamp since high school – it had been frighteningly bright and shiny, but she made it gleam like old polished plaster with country grey and old white under annie’s soft waxes.)

the group learned three different annie sloan chalk paint finishes, and chose one for their lamp.  during “dry times” we chatted about fix-ups for shades, favorite places to flea, and alternate methods using metallics.  it was a wonderful group – i can’t wait until they come back with pictures of their finished lamps in situ.  gold stars for everyone!

(matt went for a mellow antiqued gold finish for his floor lamp, beginning with graphite.  bravo!)

« mrs. jones gets framed »

April 11th, 2012

my seeking a way to display samples of all of annie sloan’s 29 fabulous colors intersected directly with my friend chris garner‘s desire to try the chalk paint and to divest himself of some frames from the “scratch & dent” pile at his shop (from where, as you know, the most gorgeous frames and mirrors come.)  it resulted in this happy situation on the walls at my studio:

now chalk paint shoppers can easily see, touch, and compare all the hues.  there is lots of fabric-swatch-holding-up going on too, which is really fun to see.

(here is a “before” of my haul from his attic:)

and just wait until you see the gorgeous moldings chris is creating with some of annie’s colors, her waxes, and a little gilding.  i can’t wait to show you.

« come on in. »

March 11th, 2012

when you arrive at 889 south cooper street, (and i hope you will, soon!) you’ll step in through a wrought-iron front door (freshly painted in behr’s rhino, #710e.30) to a small hallway that is paneled in that plastic-y stuff – you know, the man-made faux wood – popluar, i think, in the ’60′s.  there have been so many remodelings over the years to the little 1922 cottage and former beauty parlor that now houses my studio & shop that my (adorable, agreeable) landlady and i are not sure when this was added.  but we knew that it would easier and much less expensive to try to camouflauge the damaged, un-fabulous walls than to float them and start over.  here is what it looked like before:

so, the fix for now: prime.  fill all possible holes, gaps, and dents.  paint. (sherwin-williams’ origami white, #7636.)

and then: use project as an excuse to indulge my obsession for blue willow yet again, enabled by a fabulous helen morris-designed stencil, willow pattern.  register, paint, repeat.

(if you’ve never stenciled an all-over pattern that has a definite “story”, like this one, here’s a tip: begin by placing the stencil in the center of the wall, and then work out and around.)

to further distract you from the shape the walls are in – and to evoke the origin of the pattern – the next layers were two-step craqueleur to give a crazed porcelain effect.  step 1 is applied quickly with a foam roller, while step 2 is brushed on (also quickly.)

depending on how heavily step 2 is applied, the crackle is tiny (thin layer, as on the birds) or big and alligator-like (thick layer, on the tree.)

the craqueleur dries clear, and only shows where you rub a pigmented glaze, thinned-down paint, or tinted wax over it. (fun to play with – kind of like invisible ink.)  so, a waterborne glazing medium tinted with raw umber went on next, and was softened up and pushed into the cracks with cheesecloth.

once that was dry, two coats of varnish were brushed on to protect the finish….flat so as to further disguise imperfections…the bonus being that it gives the look of old wallpaper.

the interior door is original to the house, but had been covered in more of the ill-advised burnt caramel paint that coated every surface of the shop:

as i scraped back and sanded the door, i found that it had been blue, under the caramel, white, and red.

my lovely landlady is thrilled that we are now back to a shade close to the original, when her grandmother lived here.  (i used a favorite blue, farrow & ball’s oval room blue, #85, for the door and the stenciling.  the door is done in hollandlac brilliant tinted to match – thank you, emmett! – while the stenciling was done using part of the contents of a sample pot.

please check back soon for the final version of the hallway.  it’s about to get even yummier, i hope.  or better yet, drop in and see me at the coop.

« {softly} open for business »

March 5th, 2012

please don’t be blue…you have not missed the grand opening!  it hasn’t happened yet.  but with the front room (just about) ready for visitors, some of the inventory here, all my precious hens on deck to lend a hand, and people (literally!) knocking on the door for chalk paint, it seemed like the right thing to do to open the doors a few hours a week, and ease into things at the new studio. it has been wonderful to meet lovely customers from all over the region, and mrs. jones truly appreciates not only their visits but their patience too as we get all the retail bumps ironed out.

saturday, my thoughtful and industrious friends michelle and ragan “crashed” the garden at the front of the shop.  armed with an tailgate full of violet pansies (my fave!) trowels, watering cans, and the cutest blue pots – just the right color to go with the scheme – they snuck around planting and making things beautiful until i caught them:

just to give you an idea of the progress so far, here is a before of the exterior:

and the current after:

(with huge thanks to jonathan christian at signworks for his help with my fab sandwich board and sign panel, todd tice at signs first for creating the stencil for the sign and the mailbox numbers, and mark & kevin at posh for the moss in the urns.)

and here is the before:

and then the first draft of the shop…still to come: cute curtains, a chandelier, and more goodies. but so far…

(for this, i thank with all my heart my fine feathered friends cheryl, katherine, karen and catherine, without whom all this happy paint and so on would still be in boxes piled on a pallet while mrs. jones sat frozen in anticipation and fear.)

and now, off to finish custom projects for some lovely clients, call new orleans to re-order emperor’s silk, old white, graphite and louis blue, paint & clean the back rooms at the studio, sew & hang some curtains, find my adorable but elusive electrician – where is he? – and plan some workshops! see you soon.