If you’ve been reading my blog for a couple of years or so, you probably already know that peonies are one of my favorite flowers. They have just two downsides; first, their blooming season is way too short (I wish they would last all summer) and second, ants love them.
I have quite a few old fashioned pink double peonies. When we purchased our house about 30 years ago there were two of these plants in the existing garden. Since then I’ve divided them many times, shared them with friends, and moved some back to the cutting garden behind the carriage house.
They are very reliable bloomers and really don’t require much care back there. I find that the old fashioned varieties of most plants are usually less temperamental than the newer hybrids. I like to have these out of sight in the cutting garden because then I don’t feel guilty about cutting them all off and bringing them in the house (shaking off the ants first).
I’ve also added a few other varieties to the garden over the years. The white are definitely the most fragrant.
But my absolutely favorite peony is this gorgeous bright pink variety that I planted about 4 years ago. I think this is going to be the first year that I get a really good quantity of blooms on the plant.
The color of these peonies just glows from the garden in the evening. They are so vibrant!
And I think that is exactly what drew me to Dixie Belle’s paint color called Peony.
I wonder if whoever created and named this color also has these peonies growing in their garden.
By the way, I’m faking you out a little with all of the peony photos. They are from previous years because this year’s peonies aren’t blooming quite yet. Although they will be soon with this ridiculous heat we’ve been having! But even though my peonies aren’t quite here, this gorgeous paint color is! Dixie Belle was kind enough to provide me with some of this paint for a dresser makeover I have planned. But whenever I try a brand new paint color that I haven’t used before, I like to test it out on a smaller piece before I put it on a large piece of furniture.
So I pulled out one of the chairs that I purchased at the Tangletown sales.
It’s another bottomless chair that is destined to become a planter chair.
So why not go with a vibrant pink!
Well, in the spirit of full disclosure, first I went with Rachel Ashwell chalk paint in a pale blue which was very pretty, but then I opted to try sealing it with Miss Mustard Seed’s Tough Coat Sealer and the original stain on the chair bled through the paint.
This brings me to a good q tip. If you aren’t familiar with this phenomenon, sometimes even though a pre-existing stain didn’t initially bleed through your paint, once you add a water based sealer over it, the sealer will draw the bleeding stain through the paint. This can be a huge bummer when you’ve painted your piece and it looks amazing and you’re at the final step of sealing it and bam! Bleedy stains all over the place. I don’t really have a great tip for preventing this (unless you want to pre-seal every piece just in case, but that seems extreme to me), but if this happens to you there are a couple of options for dealing with it. 1) seal the piece with a stain blocking sealer (like Dixie Belle’s BOSS for example), re-paint and then add your water based sealing top coat. 2) continue on with the water based sealer and once dry paint again, and then add a wax topcoat. Waxes will not pull the stain through like a water based top coat will.
Or, you can do what I did. Go with an entirely different color and then seal it with wax.
Speaking of wax, you know how chairs are so much easier to paint if you spray them? Well, when I went to wax this chair I remembered that a while back Dixie Belle had sent me some of their Easy Peasy spray wax.
It occurred to me that … duh … this stuff would be perfect for chairs! And it was.
Simply spray it on, wait 10 to 15 seconds and then wipe away any excess. It truly is Easy Peasy.
So I’ve tested the Peony and I love it, but you probably won’t see that dresser for a couple of weeks. In the meantime I’ll have a lovely buffet and a couple of other fun projects to share with you first. So be sure to stay tuned!
q is for quandie 
Love your peonies and love the paint. It will be interesting to see what furniture style you are going to paint this color! Waiting patiently…
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This bright pink is way out of my normal comfort zone! But I think you’ll agree that it’s a good choice for the piece I have in mind for it 😉
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I love peonies! Besides loving the most beautiful fragrant flowers, I also love the fact that the foliage stays green and full all summer long. I too have several different kinds in my garden. Have you ever had a Peony tree? They are very prolific and also have an abundance of blooms. I love the pink garden garden chair. Great pop of color!
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Ken’s wife Arlene has a peony tree in the back yard. Since our yards are side by side without a fence, it seems like one big extended garden and I get to admire her plants as well as my own.
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Peonies are my favorite flower too and I love the Peony paint. I need to find a chair like yours for my garden. Thanks for sharing!
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I don’t know if you garage sale, but I find that chairs like this are a dime a dozen at garage sales. And generally quite cheap. I paid $5 for this one. Keep your eyes peeled for them!
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I do like Arlene’s peonies. Since Arlene is taking out all her beautiful roses, does that mean we have to grow them now. I never promised you a rose garden!
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Try and get THAT song out of your head now!🤣
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Yep, it’s stuck.
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Roses have always been too high maintenance for me! You know me, I’m a low-maintenance sort of girl 😉
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I learned about water based sealer on chalk paint the hard way too! So frustrating to paint something, love it and then apply the sealer and see it all ruined! On a positive note, I love the Peony color (and Peony’s) and cant wait to see your finished dresser!
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I know, such a bummer, right? You think you’re in the clear because the stain didn’t bleed thru the paint, but no! Ugh.
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Love the pink chair! I can just see it holding a pot of purple and white petunias in the garden!
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That would be perfect. Or if you have a shady spot, I can see it filled with white and pink double impatiens. The pink of the chair would really pop in the shade.
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And are you a “pee-ownie” girl or a “pee-onie” girl. Depends where you are from I guess…lol
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I’m definitely the latter. How about you?
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That color is great for a chair in the garden. Love all that pop. Too bad I don’t have any link in my garden.
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That was pink not link.
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I was wondering what you were trying to say! Well, this might be your opportunity to add some pink!
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LOVE the pink!!!!
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It’s definitely your color!
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I love “old fashion” flowers like peonies and hydrangeas takes me back to slower paced times. I so miss the peonies I left at my last home. I really need to get off my duff and plant some in my current garden. I can see that Dixie Belle paint color on toes but anymore of it is out of my comfort range. Nevertheless I have total confidence in your vision.
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So funny Victoria because I do have that color on my toes! Well, not the Dixie Belle Peony, but OPI’s Strawberry Margarita which is about the same bright pink. As for the peonies you need to get on it! They can sometimes take a couple of years before they bloom at all, so get ’em in! And finally, I hope your confidence is not misplaced 😉
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I”m confussed about the spay wax. Are you saying to use the spray wax before you paint to seal the chair from bleeding Or spray it after you have painted the chair to seal the paint color. I have some dinning room chairs I would like to paint but thought spray paint may be easier because of all the spindles. If I just Dixie Belle Wax I want to use it in the correct way.
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Use the spray wax after you paint to seal the paint color. In general wax products will not work to seal in bleeding stain. Also, you can’t paint over wax until the wax is cured. If you have a paint sprayer that you can use your own paint in, then it is so much easier to spray the paint on chairs rather than paint them with a brush … and now the same is true for wax. So much easier to spray the wax on than to use a brush or cloth to apply it. I hope that is clearer than mud 😉
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Wow! Neon!
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Yep, it’s bright! I’m really going to be stepping outside my comfort zone with this one. It will be an experiment to see how it goes 🙂
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I love this color you selected, so beautiful. I too love peonies, and have dark and light pink, as well as white. Although they were late blooming this year, when they did bloom, they were fabulous.
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My peonies bloomed a little bit later than usual this year as well. I think it was that late spring that we had!
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