What's the Deal with Chalk Paint Anyway,

In case you haven't guessed by now, I seem to have this thing for chalk paint. First of all allow me to write a disclaimer: The name "Chalk Paint" is register to Annie Sloan and is sold exclusively by distributors in boutique stores. It can't be found at your local Home Depot, Ace Hardware, or Lowes. There are a few other chalk-style or furniture paints out there, some of which you can find at the aforementioned stores, but Annie Sloan seems to be the original and probably the best. I use the term chalk paint but I should probably call it chalk-style paint. Don't want to get sued!

 

I think chalk paint is the bomb! I mentioned before that used it for the first time when I did a piece for my daughter's wedding reception. Chalk-style paint amazing to work with . It's quick and easy to use - no sanding or stripping and only minor prepping is needed. It dries fast, and is easy to sand and distress. I can go from start to finish with a small piece - a table or a chair - in less than an hour.

Chalk-style paint creates a soft, antique-looking finish that is very popular. It's easy to get a nice, "shabby to chic" vintage look. Chalk paint loves to be waxed. The wax is the other half of the magic - more on that later.

 

Annie Sloan paint is very good, but also very expensive. A quart is around $40, which comes out to $120 a gallon. To be fair, it goes on smooth and can be stretched for days - you can paint a few pieces with a quart, but it is expensive. Annie Sloan also sells furniture wax, both clear and dark, which is also a bit pricey.

 

So once I got into using chalk paint I started wondering about alternatives to Annie Sloan. I am on a budget and if I'm going to paint everything in sight - I keep finding new prospects around my house - I need to figure out something less expensive. Thankfully there are more than enough suggestions online for mixing your own paint.

 

 

 

Thee seems to be four basic ingredients that can be used for mixing chalk-style paint. Three are more common and easy to come by, and for the most part work ok, and the fourth is a little harder to come by but seems to the best. The three common ingredients are Plaster of Paris, Baking Soda, and Un-sanded grout. They all seem to work well (going on what I've read online, not on my own experience - when I have time I would like to see for myself), but all have some drawbacks. They either don't finish as smoothly, apply as well, or tend to set up too fast.

 

The third ingredient, and the one I'm now using, is Calcium Carbonate, or Cal Carb for short. Cal Carb  is actually what chalk is made of and is also what Tums are made of and can be used as a calcium supplement (you can mix it with water and drink it). Food-grade calcium carbonate can be purchased in health food stores but it is more expensive. Cal Carb is crushed limestone and is what gives chalk paint is magic powers. It makes the paint stick - the no sanding or stripping part, and also makes it smooth and sandable - the chalky part.

 

Here are the not-so-secret recipes for homemade chalk-style paint. I have a theory about this - that basically ALL commercially available chalk-style paints or chalk paint mixes are Cal Carb based, with maybe a few extra ingredients thrown in. Kind of like how all fry sauces are basically the same thing.  

 

 

 

 

 

 I searched on Amazon.com and settled on a 10-lb bag of calcium carbonate, aka. limestone, sold by Raw Supply. There was even a recipe for chalk paint on the back, which suggests that I'm not the first person to make the connection. A ten pound bag cost about $15, and according to the recipe on the back, will make about seventy gallons of paint! I did some quick math:  

 

A gallon of flat, interior, latex paint averages $20/gal, give or take

Cal Carb powder adds about $0.21 per gallon of paint.

That's roughly $20.25 for a gallon for homemade chalk paint compared to $140 gallon for Annie Sloan.

(It will probably take me 10 years to use 10lbs of Cal Carb chalk mix.) 

 

. . . oh and by the way,

 

70gal of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint would cost $9800.00!

 

I like that math a lot. 

 

 

 

 As far as I can tell the homemade Cal Carb based paint and the Annie Sloan Paint are super close. I may have to do a side-by-side comparison to be sure. But even if the AS paint is superior, which I'm sure it is, I don't think it's by much. And unless you are Mrs. Bill Gates (I don't think Bill paints his own furniture - but maybe he does), mixing your own paint makes a lot of sense financially. I don't think I will be using much more AS paint in the future . . . nothing personal Ms. Sloan.

 

UPDATE: So I've been using the calcium carbonate for the past few months and I am pretty convinced that this is the way to go. I really can't tell much of a difference between the home-made chalk paint and Annie Sloan.

Rustic Red!

My wife spotted this end table on a FB. I'm not sure what style it is. Maybe something like Rustic or Cottage. It's interesting because it's a reversible - the drawer opens from both the front and the back. My wife picked the color and we mixed our own chalk-style paint (more on that later). The paint worked out really well - so well that I will probably move away from buying the more expensive pre-mixed paint (more on that later too) and mix my own.

 

 

The piece was in pretty good shape to begin with. Nothing to fix and only needed to be cleaned up. I did have to scrape off some old glue that had been left over from a previous repair. It was a bit of a challenge to paint because of the various nooks and crannies.

 

 

Very cool how the drawers have an identical back and front so that the whole piece is reversible.

 

 

The paint is from Lowes - a sample size (7.2 oz) of Valspar Crimson (satin finish). The chalk mix is actual chalk - aka calcium carbonate that I purchased off Amazon.

 

 

I did the usual painting two coats and sanding to distress - I still have half a cup of paint left over, by the way. I used more of the dark wax because of how dark the color is. The picture shows the piece to be lighter than it actually is.

 

 

It's a fun piece. I think the original idea may have been to sell it but it currently sits next to the recliner in the front room and doesn't seem to be going anywhere. It's up to my wife - she found it.

 

Dresser for the Newlyweds!

And back we go to the newlyweds. Turns out not only where they short a table but had no where to put their cloths! We started looking for a dresser to refinish online but didn't find anything we liked. After I did the chair, however, my mother-in-law suggested a trade. The chair for a dresser that she had in her home. The dresser belonged to my wife's grandmother but it may be much older - probably 1920's to 1930's - my best guess based on the hardware used to stop the drawers from closing to far.

 The dresser was in rough shape. Most of the drawers had separated at the joints and there were dings and pieces of laminate missing. The body was also coming in a few spots. I love the detail however and I could already see how cool it would end up looking.

 

 

The hardware appears to be brass. I love the wheat looking detail at the top of the piece and the flutes going down the sides (I need to learn the technical names).

 

 

I am sad that we lost the cool design at the bottom of the piece. The feet and pennants are also very nice.

 

 

The garage is a little cold so I moved inside. I have been using the basement during the summer but decided to paint close to the tree . . . I love Christmas.

 

 

So we decided to do a two-tone paint job. We went with Old White and French Linen, both Annie Sloan brand.

 

 

I decided to paint the hardware to match the rest of the piece. I used a Rust-Olieum Country White spray paint that's a paint and primer in one. I painted the hardware in the garage where it was still cold and it took a little longer to set up. The spray paint white is very close to the color of the chalk paint.

 

 

Back in the basement. I also decided to paint the inside of the drawers to clean them up a bit. I used the clear wax inside the drawers so that they would have a nice finish. I have read that the dark wax will stain clothing even after it has set up.

 

 

 

All done. I tried to go light on the distressing and used the dark wax a little more sparingly.

 

 

The wheat (or whatever they are called) turned out very nice. I like how the dark wax brings out some of the detail. I also distressed the hardware which bring some of the old brass back. I used a little dark wax on the hardware as well.

 

 

We surprised my daughter and her husband on Christmas eve with the dresser. The person in the middle is out Aunt Beth - my wife's aunt who has Down's Syndrome. The dresser had been in her old room.

 

 

The mirror came later. The mirror was given to my daughter by my mom for the wedding reception. It is also an antique and was originally a gold color. The details on top were broken and needed some repair and then I painted the frame with the same Rust-Oleum spray paint and distressed it. The design of the mirror and the design details on the dresser are very similar. I think they go well together. I don't know the history of the mirror for sure but I believe it may have belonged to my grandmother. I told my daughter to call it the "Grandma Set" because it represents both sets of grandparents and possible great grandparents. Now she has place to put her cloths! (those walls seem a little bare . . . . they could use a shelf or two.)

 

Five Dollar Find!

 

I have become a DI regular! There is a Deseret Industries thrift store very close to where I work. Every few days I stop by there to look for smaller items that will fit in the trunk of my car. I found this side table for $5 and with the legs unbolted, it fit nicely in my trunk. The table had some water damage to the top veneer, but the rest was in very good shape. I like the shape of the legs and the drawer works perfectly. 

 

 

 

I'm trying to get better at taking before shots. I actually started cutting away the damages veneer and then realized I forgot!

 

 

 

I used a utility knife and a scrapper to cut away the part of the veneer that had lifted away from the particle board. I'm guessing the table is somewhat newer because it is particle board under the veneer and not plywood. The hardware and the bolts that hold the legs to the table top seem more dated. The hutch I did for my mother-in-law also had particle board under the veneer and similar hardware. We know that the hutch has been in the family for maybe 50-60 years.

 

I used wood filler and sanded to repair the damage. I sanded the rest of the top. I probably should have gone over the top a few more times with filler - building up and feathering. On the finished table you can see the X through the paint from where I removed the veneer. It's not hugely noticeable but it's something that I want to try to avoid. If I were keeping the table I would probably sand down the stop and do it over.

 

 

The completed piece (I slacked on the step-by-step photos . . .) I went with AS French Linen and Old White for the paint, and used Fibber & Son's finish wax with AS dark wax for antiquing. I like Fibber & Son's - it went on smoother and seems to have a better finish then the AS. I replaced the bolts that hold the legs to the table (a few were missing) and also painted the drawer hardware with a bronzed nickel spray paint. I distressed and waxed the drawer hardware as well.  

 

 

 

Time to list it and see what happens!

 

SOLD!!!!

 

My first official sale happened on New Years Day! I think this must be a sign of things to come! 

Table and Chairs for the Newlyweds!

I'm really excited about this project! A few months ago Kristy and I were driving around one Saturday, doing some shopping. She spotted a high table and four chairs on a FB yard sale page for $30. We spoke for it and went right then to pick it up. The table had been sitting on the back deck of a house, being used as a barbecue table. It was dorty, the top had scratches in the finish,  and a few of the chairs were missing bottom stringers. Otherwise the table and chairs were in really good shape. We took the the table legs off - had to borrow a wrench from the seller- loaded it in the back of the SUV, and off we went. What a find!

Our original plan was to flip the table and chairs . . .