Conjuring-inspired Chalk Paint Project

This post is for all my friends who have no interest in cute painted furniture and other home decor items so get bored with me talking about Annie Sloan Chalk Paint (ASCP).You can paint anything with that stuff. Really.

Read on to see how I’ve proven that there are NO LIMITS to what you can transform with ASCP.

It really is magical stuff. It sticks to anything, can be used to achieve some really cools effects, and truly is quite transformative.

A few weeks ago, my friend Janet (the local ASCP stockist and guru) and I went to see the movie, The Conjuring. It was based on a true story, and was SCARY. It’s one of the cases handled by the husband and wife team of Ed (a demonologist) and Lorraine (trance medium) Warren. The movie began with the story of a doll named Annabelle, before proceeding to tell the story of the Perron family, who claimed they lived with and were being tormented by spirits in their Rhode Island farmhouse.

Don’t believe the movie is scary? Check out the official trailer.

The movie was set in 1971. I couldn’t help but notice all the cool, old vintage furniture. You know, the sort of stuff ASCP fans like to transform with paint. So I wasn’t at all surprised when, as we were leaving the theater, Janet said something like, “I don’t know about you, but I saw all kinds of cool stuff screaming out to be painted.”

She was right.

I have quite a bit of stuff in my to-be-painted queue here at the house. After I finished my bathroom cabinet and, more recently, my shelf curtain (pictured below)…

 

… I embarked on a new and very different project.

When my brother and I helped Dad clean out his house earlier this year, we each left with some vintage items.

That’s my brother with a slightly creepy doll I bought when I was about five years old. My Dad kept it around for two reasons. One, he liked that it creeped people out. Two, he thought it might be worth money one day. I brought the doll home, telling my Dad I’d see if it was worth putting on eBay. It wasn’t. It just looked like an old, nappy-headed doll. It’s pretty cool that it’s life sized though, right?

The doll is still here. It’s in my basement workshop, where I do my painting and sewing. While transforming one piece of furniture or other with chalk paint one night, a lightbulb went off.

Maybe more people would be interested in the doll if she looked as creepy as Annabelle from The Conjuring. Since ASCP sticks to just about everything, I thought perhaps paint would help the doll.

And I figured painting the doll might be entertaining. On a whim, I painted her lips, fingernails, and toenails, just to see if the paint really would adhere. It did.

So I decided to transform the rest of her.

I consulted my copy of “Color Recipes for Painted Furniture and More” by Annie Sloan to see what colors I should mix together to update that old-plastic-looking skin. I settled on Old Ochre and Graphite.

There were a few weird moments during the painting process when I couldn’t help but laugh at myself, but I pushed on. And I was quite delighted to see that the paint adhered beautifully.

I had to sand it a bit, to get rid of some brush strokes. I was emulating skin, after all. Then I mixed some Old Ochre and Primer Red to get a slightly pinker cast to the skin. I add some highlights here and there, too.

Once the paint was dry, I covered the entire doll in the all-important coat of clear wax (to seal the paint) and then used dark wax to add some age.

That dark wax is awesome stuff. Here are some close-ups so you can see how well the aging process worked.

 

 

I’m really tickled at how well the transformation worked.

I tried a new outfit on her…

…but decided the flannel nightgown looks best. Although I think it’s due for some distressing, too.

I think the dogs were impressed.

Now I just need to list her on eBay. Oh, and find a box.

What do you think? Were you surprised at how well the transformation worked? Do you like the flannel gown or new outfit better?