Home and Cottage Interiors opens in Wallaceburg

Home and Cottage Interiors is Wallaceburg’s newest store featuring home and cottage decor and Annie Sloan Chalk Paint™.

The new store opened up on the Saturday of the May long weekend at 1964 Dufferin Avenue.

“We have always carried a large selection of the beachy, nautical decorator accents and are finding it very popular with the customers in this area,” commented store manager, Diane Galvin. “We have sourced out several new suppliers and hope to continually add to the selection.”

“The shabby chic nature of the nautical decor is the perfect fit for the Annie Sloan Chalk Paint™, which is a very unique decorative paint,” she said.

Home and Cottage Interiors is the only store in Chatham-Kent to stock the Annie Sloan Chalk Paint.

“Annie Sloan invented this paint 26 years ago in England. It didn’t make it’s way to Canada until about three years ago. So it is still relatively new in Canada. It basically sticks to anything. So you can go right over top of latex, oil or varnish. Almost anything. You can even paint upholstery. You don’t have to prime or sand. You just clean the piece and paint it.” She added: “It has no smell, no VOC’s and it dries really fast so you can put the second coat on right away. One of the downfalls of latex paints, is it requires a long time to dry in between coats. Quite often it will require a poly or a top coat to protect it,” Diane said.

“The chalk paint final step is wax which is a high grade furniture wax and that is what seals and protects the paint.”

The manager teaches people how to paint as well.

“In order to become an Annie Sloan Stockist, you must attend training and commit to ongoing training and offer work shops,” she said. “I have been to three training sessions in the past 2 years, including one session with Annie Sloan herself!”

“We offer workshops to teach various painting techniques. We are constantly on the lookout for furniture that we can re purpose and up cycle. Paint and resell it. We will also paint items for people if they are just not inclined to paint it themselves. We actually paint a lot of kitchen cabinets for people as well. We offer a full service that we will go to the home, remove all the doors and drawers fronts, paint them here in the studio and than go back to the home and paint the frames on site. We have to brush that out, but the doors we usually spray and you get a nice clean smooth finish. Then we reinstall the doors.”

Their next workshop is July 27. Chalk Paint™ 101 is a a three hour course that includes instruction in four of the basic painting techniques as well as a clinic on how to work with the wax. This class runs from 10 am – 1 pm. For an extra fee, you could register for the “I Made it My Own with Annie Sloan” workshop which runs the same day. You would participate in the Chalk Paint™ 101 Class in the morning, then return in the afternoon from 1-3 pm and paint your own piece of furniture.

“The benefit of doing the second part is that you get to put what you learned into practice right away, use our paint, wax and brushes and have the guidance of a certified Stockist while you work on your piece.” said Galvin. “The piece you bring has to be small enough for you to carry into the shop on your own, in one trip”

The workshops are offered once a month, usually on the fourth Wednesday of the month. The July 27th one is filling up fast. If you are interested you need to register in advance and make a deposit to secure your spot. The next scheduled event is August 24.

They can be reached at the shop at 519-627-8400.

They will also run private Work Shops on any day or evening provided you have at least four people in your group. The private work shops can be the same as the two listed, or project-based events. For more information about the various workshops, stop in and talk to the manager.

The store also carries a unique collection of Home and Cottage Decor and will also be bringing in Seasonal Decor for Fall and Christmas. Stop in soon, and tell them you heard about them in the Sydenham Current!

You can also find them on Facebook.

Here are some photos from inside the shop: