Announcing: Chalk Paint® by Annie Sloan!

We've had so many big, exciting announcements this year, between our move to Chaska, the change to being open every Thurs-Sun instead of only once per month, and our addition of a full-time employee to manage our DIY Workshops and Chaska store! All of that, while unbeknownst to us at the time, has led to our newest announcement: Carver Junk Company is now a stockist of Chalk Paint® by Annie Sloan!

I'm sure most of you have heard of Chalk Paint®, and it's founder Annie Sloan. The first piece of furniture I ever painted for Carver Junk Company was painted in Graphite Chalk Paint®, an empire-style dresser that I distressed heavily and sealed with wax. I wish I still had a photo!  Here's a pic from Annie Sloan of a piece painted in Graphite, though - it's such a perfect soft black. 

We're firm believers around here in taking smart risks, acting quickly, and jumping all-in when we make a decision. So while none of our other changes this year were made with Chalk Paint® in mind, they did all set the stage perfectly for becoming a stockist! In order to be approved to stock & sell Annie Sloan products, our store needed to be open 4 days every week, so customers have easy access to purchase products. Our move to Chaska enabled that, with the increased traffic & visibility of our new location! We also need to be able to offer consistent workshops for our customers, which we already had in place with our new workshop space and workshop coordinator, Brittany!

So when Chris from Denim Rose in Prior Lake stopped into our store one day to introduce herself, things just fell into place and we knew it was meant to be. Chris was in the process of closing her retail location to focus on her laser-cutting business, and her full-time job (she's a busy lady)! She was the very first Minnesota stockist of Chalk Paint®, and after chatting with us for a while, was generous enough to send a note to Unfolded (the U.S. Distributor for Annie Sloan) and recommend CJC as a stockist. We are so thankful to her for making the connection for us - and introducing us to the opportunity to carry this amazing paint and brand!

We submitted our application that day, and were quickly approved to stock Annie Sloan products in our Chaska location. The last step was for me to travel to New Orleans for formal training last week. We've been using Chalk Paint® for years, but even with that, I learned some awesome new tricks for using it as a stain and wash -  creating an industrial-like look on raw wood. I'm excited to bring all of that back to our workshop space, for some upcoming Chalk Paint® workshops!

Chalk Paint will be on shelves starting November 24th, 2017 in Chaska. In the meantime, we've listed it in our online store, and orders will ship starting next week. We always encourage you to stop into the store - we'd love to help you with paint color selection, tips & tricks, and bonus: we love to see and share your finished pieces. Questions about Chalk Paint®? We've also created an online FAQ covering the basics of using both the paint and waxes. 

I'm excited & overwhelmed with all of the possibilities with this paint - it's been downright painful to keep this quiet for the last two months as we planned, trained, and moved through the process! What I'm most excited about? At training, I could not stop saying "the coverage on this paint is incredible!" I'm pretty sure our trainer, Jane, has heard it a million times, but it truly is incredible. Second behind the coverage in excitement level are the Annie Sloan "flat" brushes...they help to create a beautiful, smooth, modern finish with this thick paint. They hold a lot of paint, so coverage is still great, and the price point for the quality of the brushes is ah.mazing.

I apologize in advance for all of the amazing furniture I'm about to pin, post, and promote....#sorrynotsorry. 

We will also continue to stock Miss Mustard Seed's Milk Paint, and General Finishes stains and top coats at both locations!