I redid a few pieces of furniture recently using store bought chalk finish paint. If you have never used chalky finish paint before, I highly recommend using it to paint furniture. The chalk finish eliminates the need to sand down your surface before painting. It also creates a great surface for layering of colors if you want to give your piece a distressed look.
I was using Folk Art Home Decor Chalk Paint. While this paint has proven to be great, the color selection is limited and at $9 per 8oz, it adds up pretty quick. It is also insanely popular and always sold out at both JoAnne's craft store and amazon. Annie Sloan is another popular brand, but it is really pricey. I decided with this project to try making my own chalk paint. There are several recipes online, but I used the one below:
Homemade Chalk Paint
1 cup flat finish latex paint
2 1/2 tbsp plaster of paris
1 1/2 tbsp room temp water
Mix plaster of paris with water until smooth. Add to paint and stir until combined.
That's it!
The other benefit of making it yourself is the paint color selection at Lowe's. Even the more pricey brand of chalk paint available at specialty stores doesn't have the selection that Lowe's or Home Depot does. I mean, Lowe's had at least 50 shades of white and cream!
I decided I didn't want to do any distressing with the kitchen table, but that I did want to have a variety of colors since my walls for now are a basic shade of cream. I decided to paint the table a cream color and then have the chairs in bright colors to offset the cream. I chose a sea blue and a coral for the chairs. Because this is a kitchen table and will be subject to lots of use and spills, I chose a semi-gloss polyurethane to finish to so it will be easy to clean. It also doubles as my office during the week, which is how it actually gets the most use :)
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| Kitchen counters a mess with supplies |
This project required quite a bit of supplies since i was using three different colors. You can use rinsed yogurt or butter containers to mix your paint, just make sure you save the lid. However, I recommend buying the mixing containers on the left of the picture from Lowe's. The measurements on the side make it easy for measuring the paint to mix with the plaster of paris. I also recommend making your chalk paint several hours before you plan to use it. This gives the paint a lot of time to mix and become a really nice thick texture. Kind of like marinating chicken, it's best to let it sit overnight if possible. At least that is what I found while doing this project.
Now it's time to paint! With the help of my assistants of course:
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| Duke and Sandy helping out |
I did three coats of paint with with the cream on the table. While I only did one coat of a top coat on the bookshelf and nightstand I did previously, I also did three coats of the polyurethane coating on the table because I wanted the surface to be really protected and easy to clean. The table takes a lot of spills and I didn't want anything getting through the coating. I also did three coats of paint on the coral chairs. The blue only required two coats, because this is the paint I let sit overnight. I did two coats of the polyurethane on the chairs since they see a lot of use as well.
Let me tell you, chairs are a real pain in the butt to paint! All those legs! I have to say I am VERY happy with my results. I think the brighter colored chairs look really nice with the neutral table and it adds a nice touch of brightness to my kitchen. This was a much needed make over that really paid off, literally because it cost about $60 for the supplies, and I still have plenty of paint leftover. A new table would have cost much, much more! I hope you like the results as much as I do!
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| Love the new colors! |
