How to Paint Furniture Faster Using Chalk Mix

I have painted my share of furniture… from way before I was ever blogging. I have experimented with how to paint using mostly latex paint in various brands and converted them to homemade chalk type paint using various recipes. This little shelf was my very first furniture refinishing project! It has come a long way from where it started but I think the latest look is a total keeper! And that was made possible by Diva of DIY’s Chalk Mix.

Let’s first talk about the story of this shelf – I rescued this shelf from a thrift store. I remember I really wanted to try my hand at painting because I was so inspired by all the bloggers and thought this shelf was a perfect little piece to start. I could say that this is the art of the crappy before picture but it really is from the pre-blog days when I was pretending in my head I was a blogger doing my furniture makeover 🙂

The rail was chipped in a few places and I fixed it up using wood putty followed by primer and green paint. Every blogger I followed was antiquing furniture so after a ton of research, I decided to used brown craft paint and glazing medium which worked really well considering I barely had any idea what I was doing! It looked pretty ok and we used it in various parts of the house.

Now, about 6 years later, it was again in need of love… it had got some water damage and chips. 

When Diva of Diy asked me to try out her new Chalk mix, I instantly thought about my little shelf. I had recently discovered a new Sherwin Williams color  – rose embroidery and was looking for a place to use it and this was the perfect opportunity! Look at those legs!

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Materials Used in This Project –

• TSP
• Mineral spirits
• Test size latex paint in Sherwin Williams Rose Embroidery
• Diva of DIY’s Chalk mix
• Hot water
• Measuring spoons
• A jar to mix the paint in (I didn’t use it but check out the video on why I should have)
• Good quality paint brush. This one is my favorite.
• French script stencil
• Scroll Medallion stencil
• white craft paint
• stencil pouncer
• Wood paste wax
• soft cloth for wax

How to Paint Using Chalk Mix –

Step 1 – Clean up your piece. I used TSP to give it a wash and then also wiped down with mineral spirits sinceI had used wax on it.

Step 2 – Rough up the surface using 150 grit sandpaper. I didn’t remove the green paint all the way because I wanted it to show through the pink after distressing.

Step 3 – Mix up your Chalk mix in the latex paint per the directions. I did this live on FB and you can catch the entire video of me mixing up the paint and making a mess followed by the first few strokes of paint.

 

 

Step 4 –  Give the piece 2 coats of paint. The best part of this paint is how fast it dried. I barely had to wait 15 minutes between coats.

Step 5 – Distress if you want. I gave it a light distressing with a 400 grit sandpaper in various parts to show the green through.

Step 6 – Add any more details you like. I thought the shelf needed more character so I decided to add a stenciled design. I used this French script stencil for the bottom  and this ——— for the top shelf. I used white craft paint to stencil, followed by a pass with the sand paper over the pattern to blend it in.

Step 7 – Seal it. I used furniture wax to seal the entire piece. That’s it! Isn’t the little shelf a beauty now!

My favorite part of using the chalk mix was how easy it was to use and the fact that I can mix it in with any color of my choice! And lets not forget how fast it dried up! I finished this entire makeover in one afternoon! I leave you with a few more shots of shelf… just because…

 

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