Chalk Painting and The Todd

I recently discovered this amazing painting technique and I’m completely addicted. Anyone who knows me knows that I love painting furniture (and anything else that paint will stick to). Up until this last week though,  I thought I had to either spend a fortune on expensive cabinet paint, or spray paint, if I had any hopes of paint sticking to the wood.

A few weeks ago, though, I saw this post on Facebook. Someone took this old roll top desk and chalk painted it. I was only slightly horrified that someone would paint this cherry wood roll top desk, but the finished results were A-mazing!  In the blog that I saw, they lady made the paint with regular, latex paint and a couple table spoons of plaster, so I was really intrigued by this, it sounded like it would be pretty solid. I have never done anything with chalk paint, so in my head,  I was reading ahead on this blog post, waiting for the chalk to come into play.  When I saw the finished results I KNEW I must try it. But what to try it on?

We bought (and by we, I mean, my husband) a really hideous 80′s dresser for us to use to make the sink in our master bathroom. The dresser had some redeeming qualities, but the mirror, with it’s gold etching and it’s silly gold ‘rail’ thing on the top, just screamed “PAINT ME!”  My husband, however, desperately tried to sell me on the fact that it was “old” and I should appreciate it’s antiqueness and just refinish it with a stain…. The fact that he was trying to sell me on this “old” piece by pointing out that it was as “old” as me didn’t help his case. That damn thing was getting painted!

This is why he’s not allowed to shop without me!

I think I won the argument by default when he discovered it was 3inches too big for the bathroom. After talking him down from moving the wall out to accommodate it, we settled on it’s reshaping and painting.

Resizing the dresser instead of moving the wall… it just made sense.

His biggest concern was the fact that he’d never heard of chalk paint, and he wasn’t convinced it had any place on furniture, especially in the bathroom, where it’s moist. So, I went back to Google. (It’s so odd that I’m blogging something that I found on blogs.) This time I watched a video, where again, the lady MADE the chalk paint, but this time using non-sanded grout! Ah HA!  If that isn’t sturdy, I don’t know what is! (he still wasn’t convinced… more googling was involved, I’ll spare you the details of the next few hours)

Chalk paint, which is not to be confused for chalk BOARD paint  (although, it might work for that) is the greatest invention ever! It is the toughest paint I’ve ever worked with. If you like to distress things, this is the technique for you. Everything in my house is gonna look like it’s “from the ’80′s”, as my son would say, if I have anything to say about it!

The final product

I’ll be honest, I haven’t tried the plaster. No need, the non sanded grout works AMAZINGLY. Although, I will say, do NOT rush out to Home Depot. Their grout SUCKS! I’ll show you why later.

 

Chalk Painting and The Todd