Wednesday, May 8, 2013

The Pinterest Report: DIY Chalk Paint

Hello!

Whew. What a crazy couple of weeks! I was in a craft show last week. I’m trying to move away from baby items into repurposing furniture. I have more fun playing around with furniture, and I really don’t have any more space in my house to keep the items I’ve fixed up. It was a ton of fun to find new homes for the different pieces I had collected.

When I thought about painting furniture for the show, I decided I needed to try this new chalk paint thing that is so popular. You may have heard of Anne Sloan’s chalk paint. It’s “miracle” paint in the sense that it doesn’t require sanding or priming before using and distresses easily.

Now, if you look at buying some Anne Sloan’s paint, you better be prepared to pull your chin off the floor. It’s around $30.00 for a quart. Say, what?!? I don’t know about you, but that’s a pretty penny to avoid sanding. I had thought about springing for the paint on one project, but then I saw this Pin on Pinterest, and alas, it was time to DIY chalk paint!

So, how well does the DIY recipe with Plaster of Paris work? It was every bit a “miracle” paint solution I thought it would be. Granted I couldn’t help myself from sanding. It just seemed so wrong not to. So I did a light sanding. My blue and aqua covered pretty well. I only needed 2 or 3 coats to cover a dark brown. The yellow wasn’t quite as good and required 4 coats (but it should be noted that the paint itself was a lower quality than the paint I used on the other two). One of my pieces had previously been painted yellow, so when I distressed the piece it let through a bit of the yellow. I thought that effect was pretty cool. The coat was pretty durable. I felt like it took some real elbow grease to distress.

I will definitely be using this recipe again. I just had to use some left over paint and a little bit of plaster of paris. Very cheap (like $1.00 a paint job cheap). And, if you have this month’s HGTV magazine, you can get a free 1 cup sample of Vaspar’s spring collection paint. Perfect for mixing up this recipe. Then you’re looking at an even cheaper solution! 


The paint all mixed up. I found two things 1) if you use press and seal wrap, the paint doesn't dry out over night (a reported problem with DIY recipes), and 2) while you're supposed to use a foam brush, you should plan on having a few on hand. The paint is pretty heavy and can do a real number on a foam brush.


The paint drying on my desk turned headboard. Pretty smooth finish and it dries very quickly. (Headboard is still available for purchase)

My four pieces drying (sorry for cell phone blurry picture!). Yes I'm painting inside and yes, the smell wasn't too bad. But why was I painting inside in May?

Because this was my view outside! Surprise May snow storm! My poor magnolia tree took a beating.

Finished drawer turned end table (that's a bit of mod podge inside with some fun fabric. This item is still available for purchase!
 Desk turned message board with a bit of distressing. (This item is sold as well)

 
 My favorite piece (and already sold piece). It was the writing portion of the desk you pull out. It was previously yellow, so the distressing pulled out a bit of the yellow. I tried the distressing method where you use a bit of sand paper on edges and steel wool on the main part.

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