Photo: Birmingham Magazine
Charmingly Chic Creations
Sitting in a corner of Leah Chitty’s garage is a stack of dusty, painted canvases, remnants from nights at one of the many guided drinking-and-painting classes popular around town. Though Chitty says she enjoyed the social interaction (and the wine), each time she left a class, her new painting inevitably found its way onto the pile with the rest of them.
With bright colors, gaudy designs, and styles better suited to the dorm room than the dining room, Chitty knew that she couldn’t be the only one with a pile of wasted art. Rather than search for a different class, however, she enlisted friend and fellow artist Jenna Higgins to start Charmingly Chic Creations.
“We want people to enjoy what they spent money on and took the time to paint, rather than toss it in a closet somewhere,” Chitty says. “I love being around people, drinking wine, and painting, but [the finished products] don’t go with anything in my house!”
Unlike other pay-to-paint operations, Charmingly Chic’s brand of handcrafted sign art is completely customizable. For an all-inclusive fee, guests get a wooden pallet to paint or stain, plus their choice of quote to paint via a vinyl stencil. With complete control over every detail, each guest is guaranteed to go home with something uniquely their own. Plus, there’s another benefit: Charmingly Chic parties are hosted in participants’ homes, making it much more practical.
“This allows you to drink in your home and gather there, rather than go out and drink and drive,” Chitty says. “We’re a mobile party, we bring everything to your household—the paint, the wooden pallets, the tables, the chairs.”
Chitty and Higgins, who met in a high school art class, have always fed off each other’s creative energy. The Pinson, Alabama natives remained close years after graduating, even as Chitty briefly moved to Florida. When she returned to Alabama by way of the Steel City, the two began looking for ways to support their creative endeavors.
They both have day jobs—Chitty as an executive assistant at an engineering firm, Higgins as a medical receptionist—which means Charmingly Chic is as much a side job as it is a labor of love. And there is plenty of labor.
“Me and Leah actually build the pallets ourselves,” Higgins says.
Since starting Charmingly Chic Creations in February 2018, Chitty and Higgins have hosted more than 20 private and public events, from bachelorette parties and baby showers to everyday “girls’ nights in,” Chitty says.
One of their earliest events was held at Chewacla State Park for the Alabama Sheriff’s Girls Ranch. The two didn’t anticipate working in an area with no running water on a hot summer day, which meant an added challenge of keeping their young guests cool while tending to 20 different paintings. Despite the success of the event, Chitty admits it was “an experience.”
“You need water to wash out your brushes and everything, so we’ve learned that wherever we do an event, we need to make sure that we have running water,” she says. “Whatever that creek or river was that runs through it, we actually dove in afterwards to try and get the paint off.”
Calling themselves “extremely hands-on,” Chitty and Higgins have no problem stepping in to touch up someone’s work if they ask for help, especially when it comes to laying the stencils down. At the end of the day, the goal is to have fun, but they want everyone to leave satisfied with their creation, as well.
“We’ve had so many customers say, ‘I’m not artistic at all,’ ‘I can’t paint,’ ‘You’re gonna have to do this for me,’ but then completely do it by themselves,” Higgins says. “We help them out, but they completely do it, and they’re so surprised when they finish that it looks amazing. Any skill level can do it.”
As word of the new paint class concept spread, Charmingly Chic’s gigs began to increase. They hosted a class at The Summit in a converted event space that drew a huge turnout. They were invited to the 2018 Southern Women’s Show this fall to give onstage painting demonstrations at the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex. As for their house parties (their preferred set-up), word-of-mouth has spread their business across town, prompting them to begin offering reduced rates for hosts who invite eight or more friends.
In September 2018, the two began a weekly residency at Slag Heap Brewing Co. in Trussville, where anyone can walk up and start painting without calling ahead, should the inspiration strike. While finishing their interiors, Slag Heap actually contracted Charmingly Chic to help design their beer menus and interior signage, a sign of possible commercial work to come.
“We’d love to do more of that in the future,” Higgins says. “We just enjoy creating things.”