On Saturday I had some time on my hands and popped into a small consignment store. When I drove up, I saw a sweet little coat tree. I have been looking for one and this one is a perfect size for my guest room.
It is cold in my basement so the best place to paint is in the kitchen. Thank goodness for paint tarps!
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| Old, boring and needing some love |
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| I think this may have been someone high school "shop" project from a long time ago! |
Since I first read about chalk paint I have wanted to give it a whirl. I would love to try ASCP but until my ship comes in (or at least enters the harbor!), I need a less expensive version. I saw lots of recipes on the internet and decided to try using plaster of Paris, antique white latex paint and water. One of the problems reported with the substitute chalk paint was that it tended to be either lumpy or very grainy. I decided to bring out my immersion blender to mix the product as much as I could. I put the plaster of Paris in the bottom of a recycled Classico spaghetti sauce jar followed by water and then the paint. I mixed it thoroughly and ended up with a very smooth "concoction". (I put a lid on the jar and let it sit for about 15 minutes before I started using it.) One note about using the blender...wash it immediately! I pulled mine out of the paint mixture and immersed it in sudsy water and cleaned it completely. I also noticed that this paint does not come off your hands as easily as regular latex paint. Because I was painting in my kitchen I ended up with some flecks of paint on the upper cabinets. I had to chip it off. I am sure that if I wanted to paint my kitchen cabinets, this stuff would work! Between coats I put my brush in a container of water and then just dried it on paper towels before I used it again. I also did not use "good" brushes. I did not want to mess up my good Purdy brushes so I used some cheap, off the bottom shelf brushes. The first coat had lots of brush marks so I used a foam brush for the second coat just to smooth it out a bit. The first coat dried in about an hour so I quickly applied a second coat. I allowed the second coat to dry for a couple of hours and then distressed it with a sanding block I finished up with a coat of Minwax finishing wax. I also decided not to paint or replace the hardware. I like the patina on the the old brass.
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| Here it is in the guest room |
So, here's my take on "homemade" chalk paint - I loved working with it! I loved the coverage, the texture that it added to the piece, how fast it dried and how quickly I was able to finish my project. Now that I know how easily this works, next week I am going to paint a 200 year old wash stand.
