When I began my endless google searches of “china cabinet make-over,” I came across project after project that used Chalk Paint. Where does one get Chalk Paint? Is this something I can find at Home Depot?
Nope….
The brand is Annie Sloan Paints and Waxes – I fell in love with her product just by the design of the label on the cans:
So simple and organic looking.
Annie Sloan actually sounds like a pretty neat lady. She lives and works in Oxford, England with her husband David who runs the business with her. She was born in Australia to a Scottish father and a Fijian mother and came to England to a farming life in Kent when she was ten years old. You can read more about her here, but it is said that she may be the reason for the “painted furniture” trend. She’s painted nearly her whole life and written all kinds of books.
As cool as she is …. I’m not paying $35 for a quart of paint. Sorry ’bout it. After some research – I found a lot of DIY’ers who have made their own. (Hey, I’m sure Annie started somewhere, right?) Recipes range from mixing calcium to grout to plaster of paris into paint in order to get the matte finish and the benefit of skipping the sanding step.
Plaster of Paris seemed most accessible and my Jo Ann’s coupon made it cheap. I mixed up 1 part of p-of-p and 1 part hot water and mixed until all p-of-p was dissolved. I then added 3 parts latex satin paint (I used Behr in Mountain Ridge without the added primer). It went on like a dream!
The paint dries fairly quickly so I applied one coat, waited an hour or so and then applied a second coat. I let everything dry a couple of days and then rubbed on some wax to help protect the paint. Use this stuff by Minwax. You should be able to find it at any Home Depot.
I’m not lying when I say this paint is great. That recipe, if mixed well, doesn’t leave clumps or streaks and goes on really well. Now I want to paint every piece of wood furniture in my house! Here are some projects around the blogosphere that used various homemade chalk paint recipes:
townhouseconfidential 