Guest Post | Life on Lakeshore Drive

I’m hanging out at the beach this week, so I’ve asked a few of my friends to step in while I’ve got my toes in the sand. Please show them lots of A Step in the Journey LOVE!

Hello friends, my name is Kathy, and I am so honored to have the privilege of being a guest blogger for Laura Beth today! My husband and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary in February, and I am a proud mother of 2 college students, Tyler and Lauren. I teach third grade by day, and craft like crazy by night! :)

We moved into our home about a year ago, and I am constantly working on something around our house. I started my blog, Life on Lakeshore Drive, to share my projects and home improvements. I am a true “newbie” to the blogworld with my own blog, but many of you are my inspiration daily with your blogs. A huge thank you to Laura Beth for all the help she has given me, and trust me……I’ve bugged her a lot. She is AWESOME!!!

I am so excited to share with you two of my favorite things! Everybody knows all about the wonderful Annie Sloan Chalk paint, but have you heard about Wood Icing? Wood Icing is a faux finish technique that can be used many ways. I love this stuff! It is so easy to use, and the way I chose to use it on this project gave a raised surface where you would use an ordinary stencil. It adds depth and makes the stencil pattern really standout. I have found that these 2 products together are the perfect pair. :)

Here is the before picture of my old faithful and used daily little cabinet hutch. It was painted that lovely country blue back in the day when I first purchased it. Then it was decked out in hunter green for a few years, and just plain boring.

It serves its purpose in my kitchen very well, but the green wasn’t working since our recent move. Since it’s the perfect “catch all” for my cookbooks, paperwork, etc., it was in need of a re-do and that green had to go!! Here is how I gave this hutch its makeover.

First, I painted the hutch with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Emperor’s Silk. I love that color, especially after it receives a coat of the dark wax. Here is the cabinet before waxing. The next step is to choose your stencil and measure where you want the stenciling to go. I used a stencil from a previous project that was purchased at Michael’s.

Now it’s time to apply the Wood Icing. It is so easy to use, and has the consistency of peanut butter. Using a putty knife, apply the icing to the stencil. Then carefully take the putty knife run it across the stencil to remove the excess icing. The icing will remain in the grooves of the stencil. I’ve found that letting it set for about 30 seconds works best before removing the stencil. THIS next step is so important, slowly lift off the stencil one section at a time. You don’t want to mess up your beautiful design.

Here is the top half finished with the icing.

Wood Icing dries quickly and easily washes off with water. Take a wet paper towel and wipe the stencil off after each use. After completely finishing with the icing, I painted a coat of ASCP over the entire area. It could be left like that, but I wanted to add more color so I painted the icing with gold paint. Yes friends, this part did take awhile. Especially that bottom part, where I was on my stomach painting that last little bit. LOL

The above picture is a close up of the Wood Icing with just the chalk paint. It adds so much depth and detail. I love it!!!!!

Here is a closeup to show you the details of the icing. With the surface being raised, painting it is very simple using a small brush. It does take awhile though, so patience is needed for this project. The results are definitely worth it.

Making progress with the painting in the picture below.

A few more close ups of the details!

At this point, let me insert a great tip I found very helpful! There is a warning not to rinse your stencils or knives off in your sink for obvious reasons. A large Ziplock Baggie with a small amount of water in it, makes cleaning the stencil a breeze. The icing does dry rather quickly so wipe all your utensils immediately after each use and clean up is easy. Umm yep, I did learn this from experience!

I love how the icing really makes the stencil stand out.

Ok dear friends, this little wall poses huge problems trying to take a full length picture of the hutch. It is directly in front of my hutch. Since moving it is not an option at the moment, (wink, wink, hint, hint to the hubs) the pictures are at angle. Sorry friends. I really want to take that wall out in the near future and replace it with a column!!! Like tomorrow! We really need that extra space around my kitchen table.

I love how this turned out! It added so much color to my kitchen.

Here is a before and after one more time.

Thanks for stopping by! I hope I have encouraged you to add a little “Icing” to your projects. You will be so glad you did! If you have worked with Wood Icing, I would love to hear from you. I have a few more projects to share with you using ASCP and Wood Icing so please visit Life on Lakeshore Drive..

Kathy

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Isn’t Kathy fabulous??! I’ve not heard of wood icing before, but I’ll definitely be looking into it soon :o)
Here are a few more of my favorite projects Kathy has been working on! She is a brand new blogger, but is well on her way to great things!