Recall my love for Annie Sloan’s chalk paint and all my furniture projects, then get a load of this brilliance.

Painted Tree

Sometimes you just don’t have room for a tree that eats 75 feet of ribbon (!!) like mine did this season. Odds are you’ve got twigs or branches outside the door, and some rope kicking about. Voila….

Dry the wood and trim the branches to size to make the tree shape. Then bust out the Chalk Paint™, water it down into a wash and brush onto the rope (Annie used Florence above) and dry by a heater. Nezt paint the branches as you wish. Annie used a different base color on each branch above (Provence, Versailles, Greek Blue, Old Violet, Duck Egg Blue, Emile and Olive) then painted over each with Old White once the first coat was completely dry. Last she applied clear wax and distressed the paint using a fine grit sandpaper. This reveals areas of colour and highlights the gorgeous texture and pattern from the bark of the branches.

2. Painted Wreath

Back outside you go – to gather cones!

Then paint them in whatever colors of Chalk Paint™ you have around …dribs and drabs will do as you don’t need very much. String them together and get this gorgeousness.

3. Painted Logs

This is by no means a holiday only … we’re definitely going to give this a go to brighten up our winter! Whether in, near or nowhere near the fireplace painting the ends of logs injects a whole other decor element into the room. Funny, we thought about painting our snowmen but knew more snow was on the way and would eventually do the trick…