As you might remember, a couple of weeks ago I had my first experience with chalk paint. And although I love the way my crates turned out, I don’t feel like I got to experience all of the benefits chalk paint had to offer. Since my crate was rather splintery, I did sand it before painting. However, one of the benefits of chalk paint I hear about most frequently is that you get to skip the prep work.
I can paint something without having to sand OR prime it? I’ll believe that when I see it. Or test it out for myself…
This chair seemed like a good opportunity as any!
I didn’t do much sanding. The wood was a little frayed towards the feet of the chair, which I sanded slightly. Other than giving it a quick cleaning with a damp cloth, that’s all the prep work I did before I got to painting. Skipping the sanding feels like fast forwarding to the fun part. I mixed up some chalk paint using the same recipe as with the crates. The color is Baked Biscotti by Behr.
- 1/2 cup Plaster of Paris
- 1/2 cup hot water
- Combine plaster and hot water, mix until well blended.
- Mix in 1 cup latex paint
My absolute favorite thing about the chalk paint is that it dries super fast! I’m talking like half an hour. This means that you can probably get something quick like a chair done from start to finish in a couple of hours. This is what it looked like after two coats of chalk paint.
I guess the chalk paint did cover as promised! I could probably just have left the chair as is after painting, but decided to go a step too far give it a little character! I was going for a vintage look similar to the mirror from a few months ago.
To make it look a little (but not actually) dirty, I lightly apply some vintage gold paint to parts of the chair, smear it with a slightly damp paper towel, and then sand some of it off.
Sometimes I feel like distressing things is my way of masking the fact that I’m not the best painter (of course it doesn’t look perfect! I didn’t mean for it to..)
The chalk paint does sand nicely as well. If I wanted a more polished look for the chair, I would probably have sanded over the whole thing with fine grade sandpaper to minimize the brushstrokes, but I like the way they look.
What do you think of my new-old chair? I plan on using it with an adorable writing desk my boyfriend picked up for me last week that is currently in the garage awaiting its makeover. Also, how great is it that he picks up pieces of furniture for me to redo? I’m glad he supports my hoarding creative outlet.
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