Paints made specifically to stimulate creativity

Some time ago I attended a workshop in Bucharest to learn more about Annie Sloan paints. Incidentally I also wrote about that experience because it was informative and enjoyable. It wasn't the first time I'd heard about chalky paints, I'd seen pictures online of the results of their application and liked the antiqued look. The experience at the workshop led me to learn more about the presence of Annie Sloan in Romania and I saw that there are a few places in the country where they can be found. The common denominator of these shops is creativity. All those who sell Annie Sloan paints in Romania are creative people and they demonstrate this by setting up their own shops, by the workshops they do with those eager to learn techniques and by transforming old pieces of furniture or other objects that others would surely see lost.

In fact, these creative people are also addressed Annie Sloan. The paints are made to be applied easily and the application rules are less strict. You just need to want to change something in your home and with the help of chalky paints you can do it in one day. You can paint wooden furniture as well as chipboard, metal and plastic. You can even apply them to leather and textiles. They're water-based, so you won't have any problems with the smell of thinner in your home, and applying them is child's play.

Creativity is actually the criterion by which Annie Sloan chooses her distributors. She works with thousands of stores around the world and prides herself on the fact that no two are alike. Although the owners of these shops are often invited to Oxford to learn new techniques developed by Annie Sloan, their shops are not the same, each with its own personality and creativity.

Why is it so important to be creative? Because paints are made by a creative person and to be able to exploit their full potential requires imagination, artistic sense, people who break barriers. Used by people without these qualities, paints lose their transformative power and become banal. The workshops that all these distributors hold in turn are precisely to show those interested what can be achieved by letting the imagination work, freeing the artistic spirit.

Creativity can be brought to the fore when trying to save old pieces of furniture. I've always said that, unfortunately, we throw away old stuff too easily. We are angry that resources are not protected, that they are exploited chaotically, instead if we have an old desk left over from our grandparents or parents we throw it away immediately and buy something new. We don't think for a moment that it is wood, that it is good, that it is a memory, that it can be reinvented. We simply want something else. That's why I'm happy to show you what can be done with chalky paints and a little creativity.

When I told you about conversion of the old cupboard in the barn made by distributor from Ciceu, I told you that there are several such places where Annie Sloan paints can be found. The one I recently discovered and where you will certainly find a lot of creativity is the one in Târgu Mureș. It is called Kamandalu Art & Craft and is an arts and crafts workshop opened by a young family after several trips to the Orient. They repaint old furniture with chalky paints in an attempt to restore its former beauty, but also to save its old values. Opening this workshop was a dream come true.

Of the many transformations of furniture pieces they have done I have chosen, with great difficulty, a few. I chose hard because they are all beautiful, they are full of life and colour, they are a picture of what can become, with a little imagination and a lot of love, an old piece of furniture thrown in a corner.

You will also have the opportunity to see Annie Sloan paints at BIFE SIM furniture, accessories and equipment fair from 13-17 September. There will also be demonstrations of application techniques, but I'll tell you more about attending the fair soon.