denise cerro: Where are The Wild things?

What do these things have in common?

Kelly Hinchman of Hinchman Johnson Design Studio had an idea, and put them all together to welcome a new little boy into our world. Working with the new Mom & Dad, the three came up with an adventurous theme for the new baby's room...

Where the Wild Things Are

Kelly contacted me about furniture for the room and we came up with a few fun ideas, she then set out to find the perfect pieces to be painted. Remember I mentioned the original Craftsman armoire several posts ago with the promise of finished photos to follow...

I must admit...being a BIG fan of the Craftsman period, I was a little (alot) squeamish about painting over such a beautiful example of craftsmanship! Once I got the base coats on though...it was easy to move from the past into creating this little boys future first bedroom.

Both pieces were first painted with Chalk Paint Coco

then Aubusson Blue was added to the trim.

Using the fabrics & colors Kelly choose for the room, I painted the inside of the armoire a surprising chartreuse just to liven things up. This color was called Shakespeare from an old ICI fan deck I still have laying around in my workshop, I had it mixed in a Behr all in one primer & paint.

Once the Coco & Aubusson blue were on, I sanded through all the edges and mellowed up the finish with Annie Sloane's soft waxes, first a coat of clear and then a second coat of clear & dark wax mixed together.

The changing table that was found in a consignment shop is really big, with lots of drawer space. We decided on a ticking pattern in the Aubusson, then I hand painted the No7 over top. Kelly found great drawer pulls at Anthropology for the three top drawers that match the chartreuse of the armoire perfectly.