One of the best parts of creating my business The Purple Painted Lady, is seeing the proud faces of customers who accomplished a furniture transformation using Chalk Paint® by Annie Sloan and how they are excited to share their experience.

In western NY, the popularity of a harlequin, striped or diamond pattern is strong.  Some love a checkerboard too.  Either way- both require a little pre-thought, planning and layout.  I hope this post helps you if you are interested in trying a whimsical design.  Below are a few photos of some pieces I did years ago.

And here is a lay out shown by Karen Meadows.

Karen is an artist and lives in Maine. She wrote me the nicest email with some photos, and I thought I would share them with you regarding this piece she completed with a black and white harlequin top.

“HOW TO” INSTRUCTIONS FOR CREATING A HARLEQUIN TOP:

Karen used Graphite, Pure White and Provence on this piece.

***  On a side note- HERE is a post to explains the differences in Annie’s “white” Chalk Paint®.

*** On a side note-  HERE is a post that shows the difference between Provence and Duck Egg Blue Chalk Paint®.

She referenced our post with HERE that is all about HOW TO CREATE A DIAMOND PATTERN TOP.  It has detailed instructions on how to create this harlequin pattern also.

LETTER FROM KAREN:

I have recently turned my focus towards furniture and Annie Sloan paint and waxes from the Purple Painted Lady namely Trish!
The piece shown below was found in a garage sale. She said it was $20 and the challenge was on. Well… First challenge was to stuff said bureau into my beetle!

I cleaned it with a warm damp cloth. I fixed the drawer ‘ gliders and I was on my way. There is a picture when the Harlequin design penciled on and painters tape on the diamonds that I won’t paint. The easiest way I have found to paint a Harlequin design is to mark a large X from corners to corners. Then just draw lines parallel to those original lines, remembering the smaller the space between your parallel lines the smaller your diamonds. These diamonds are made with 3 inch spread.

At this point I have already remove the drawers and apply two coats of old white to the entire Bureau. The diamonds are painted with Annie Sloan old white and graphite. There are two coats. I found a small flat angled brush works best.

On the side I use painters tape for the stripes. The teal color is the Annie Sloan Provence. I love it!

On the hardware I used my dry stencil brush with a tiny bit of old white. Thank you for looking. I hope you enjoyed it as much as the new owner of the piece. XO Karen