My First Chalk Painting Experience

A while ago, I got my order of Annie Sloan chalk paint in ‘old white’.  I was impatiently waiting for my mail to arrive and I was a little taken back when it showed up on my doorstep in a dinted can, but thankfully no leaks.


I’ve never worked with chalk paint before and I was excited to give it a try.


My first test piece to experiment on was a small crate wooden crate I got from the dollar store.  I bought this little guy a couple years ago and never painted it.  I figured if it turns out that the paint is awful (although I knew it wouldn’t be), I would not have damaged something I was really in love with or expensive.  But I’m a pretty cautious person, so I took baby steps.


The next item I had plans to paint was the plant pot for my huge and creepy looking Yucca plant.  We have had that plant for years.  The poor thing has seen better days.  If you look at the plant from a different angle you can see that it leans extensively and it has hardly any leaves at the back.  So it stays in the corner of the room and is doing quite well in our new house in its spot.

The brown/terracotta colored plant pot fit in with the decor at the old house, but it seemed to stick out like a sore thumb in this house.  Time for a change.


So I got to work and first tried my hand at the small dollar store wooden crate that usually lives on our kitchen table and holds our paper napkins.  I wasn’t sure what to expect with the chalk paint but it is very easy to work with and covers very well.  I wanted to see how the paint would hold up on different surfaces and decided to try a plastic plant pot that was passed down from my mom and was in rough shape.

I made a little work table out of a flattened diaper box placed on top of a Superstore green grocery tub.  Yep, you can laugh, I know I did.  But it actually worked pretty well.  Normally, I would paint in the garage but my husband was doing some work in there.  Plus, I had no idea how I was going to move that huge Yucca plant pot to the garage to paint.  So…


I stuck the huge and heavy pot on an old towel/rag and painted it right there in the living room.


I gave all the items 2 coats of paint using my new Annie Sloan paint brush.


I have never spent this much money on a paint brush before.  But it is very well made and very comfortable to hold, well worth the money.

The final step is to seal and protect the painted surfaces with wax.  Never having worked with a wax before I didn’t know what to expect.

Even this poor little can got a dint.




Luckily, the clear wax was easy to apply and using the brush worked really well especially because my projects had little groves and corners to work in.  After applying a light layer with the brush I buffed the wax off with a soft painter's rag.


All the projects turned out really well for me and are holding up nicely.  It has been a few months since I have painted the items and even the plastic plant pot from my mom is in great shape.  I was a little skeptical, but so far so good.

Before

After

The white plant pot looks so much better compared to the terracotta color.



My husband thinks I’m going to get sick of white, since I’m painting and adding white everywhere in our new house.  I can’t see it happening.  The good thing about white is I can easily add a pop of color and it will totally change the area and give it a new look.  When I’m bored or want a change, I can just change the pop of color.  Much easier than changing more expensive and staple items when I get tired of a color.

I can’t wait to try painting with this color again!  Have you used chalk paint before?

As Always,
Sandra