DIY Chalk Paint

After I discovered that the only Chalk Paint supplier in Ontario (Bath, Ontario to be exact) sold Chalk Paint for about $45/can I resorted to figuring out another way to satisfy my Chalk Paint craving. What does a girl do in a time of obsessive need? She finds a way to do it herself! DIY, ladies, DIY!!

So, clearly I have never had the blessed opportunity of experiencing Annie Sloan's Chalk Paint, therefore I have no idea if my creative paint making skills are mastered but my Google searching definitely makes me believe that my paint is just as grand (sorry, Annie Sloan).

The piece that I am working on is one of two large bookshelves (the Ikea Billy bookcase type) that I scored on Freecycle (for FREE) some time ago for my home office. They are a super ugly! Super melamine! A disgusting reddish-brown colour! And both are in definite re-vamp need.

My DIY Chalk Paint consists of 2 ingredients. Wall paint and baking soda. That's it. That's all.

I mixed 5 cups of white paint (C.I.L. Dulux Interior Semi Gloss in white) in a plastic container and added approximately 2 cups of Arm & Hammer baking soda. Be sure to sprinkle the baking soda in a bit at a time and stir like cray-cray to ensure a smooth consistency.

The great thing about Chalk Paint is that there is absolutely no prepping to be completed before the paint process. You just slap it on! No sanding or priming is a bonus in my books.

The paint is fairly thick and dries quick so you want to work semi-fast. After the first coat you may see some lines but once the second coat is complete and dry, the lines will disappear.

After it's dry, the paint may feel a bit gritty to the touch but a light sanding will smooth everything out. The paint turns to dust when you sand so don't over do it unless you are going for an extremely distressed look.

Apply the wax of your choice, Minwax, Beeswax, what ever you wish and voila!

Simple, super cheap and easy!

I'm loving my chalk paint! This week I found a beautiful old desk on Kijiji (for FREE) that I am going to distress to match my shelves.

Happy Painting and Happy Friday!

xTx

Chalk Paint

Although I have a terrible habit of starting another before I finish the first, second and third; I love DIY projects! Lately I have been getting into a lot of furniture/accessory painting. Not only is it fun to take items from drab to fab, it's super cheap and exciting to see the ways that such ugly items can be transformed.

Through my Google sessions in search of products to refinish a coffee table (that I scored for $8.00 at a thrift store) I came across Chalk Paint. Chalk Paint is not to be mistaken for Chalkboard Paint - They are completely different.

Chalk Paint is extremely thick, almost gritty, wonderfully matte and beautiful. Of course through further investigative research, I decided that I just had to have it. Well, it turns out that there are only two suppliers in Canada that carry Chalk Paint. One in British Columbia and one in Ontario. The store in Ontario sells it for about $45/can. I just couldn't justify paying so much money for paint so I resulted back to Google in search of Chalk Paint dupes. I came up with nothing. I called designers, paint stores, hardware stores and department stores. Funny enough, no one that I spoke to knew what the hell I was talking about. No one had heard of Chalk Paint.

So what do I do when I can't find something that I want? I make my own...

I will be starting on one of my office book shelves today. Wish me luck that the paint I am making works!

xTx