This rainbow, rustic, bohemian sideboard was expertly blended with a multitude of Chalk Paint® colours by Painter in Residence Chloe Kempster.

The key to this piece is the nuanced, fluid layers of colour. Painter in Residence Chloe Kempster (of Maisie’s House) achieved this by first laying a base “colour map”. She applied rough patches of Chalk Paint® directly on to the wood; Aubusson Blue and Napoleonic Blue on the base; Burgundy in the centre panel; Scandinavian Pink and Barcelona Orange in the door centres; Provence for the top; Firle for the sides… the colour list goes on! She blended the colours as she went – thereby creating innumerable bespoke shades as each section blended unexpectedly into another.

The art here is patient blending. Chloe combined a dry brush technique (a very small amount of Chalk Paint® on the brush to give thin, textured application of paint) with a wet blending technique (spraying water where colours merge to aid in mixing and merging colours together). Vertical strokes of the brush and conservative use of water for wet blending avoids drip marks forming and gives a more circular sense of movement to the piece. To finish, she sanded back in places, highlighted the lines of the piece with Black Chalk Paint® Wax then protected her work with a coat of Clear Chalk Paint® Wax. The final look is a bohemian, impressionistic and rustic.