DIY Chalk Paint (I Think I'm in Love)

I've been pondering redecorating the master bedroom. While researching how this lazy woman can easily and cheaply repaint a 30-year-old dresser and bureau, I stumbled across several blogs referencing Annie Sloan Chalk Paint. Apparently this stuff is miraculous...and crazy-expensive! As in, one quart of this stuff costs what I'd spend on a gallon of paint at Lowes. Nuh-uh. Not gonna happen. Knowing that all good things (and a God-awful amount of bad) are on the 'net, I Googled "DIY Annie Sloan chalk paint". And found this amazing post where she gives the recipe, comparisons, and wonderful pictures!

I went ahead and chose my accent colors so I could test this stuff on something small. A little background: our bedroom has been in shades of blue and maroon/burgundy for about...um...thirteen years?!? Time for a change, dangit! There's no money for repainting the whole room, I would not subject my hubby to that arduous task at this point, and I do love the just-barely-too-blue-to-be-periwinkle color he picked out six years ago. So, blue it is, dings and all. (I'm afraid touch-ups would be glaringly obvious.) I decided to go with painting the light oak furniture cream and antiquing it to match a gorgeous, enormous trunk some friends just gave us. Accents on the trunk are sage green, so I'm going with that and a spicy pumpkin pie orange. I found $3 sample jars at Lowes and went with Gold Infusion (it's green, though), Gaslight, and a box of plaster of Paris, the cheaper of the two options for DIY chalk paint, the other being non-sanded grout.

First to be tested with the DIY chalk paint was a jewelry box I inherited when my daughter got tired of it (and she inherited it from my sis-in-law!). I'm not a big fan of red-toned wood to start with, my dear daughter had beaten this thing up pretty badly, and it didn't match anything else in the room. Its one redeeming quality was that by ripping out a lazy-Susan-style necklace hanger, I could store my small stash of jewelry AND all my homemade, essential oil perfumes, balms, body butters, etc. in one place, significantly de-cluttering my dresser top and making my dusting slave (a.k.a. my son) very happy.

I read the instructions wrongly, making the paint a bit thinner than I think it should have been. This first coat made me nervous.

Somehow I misplaced the second-coat pic, so here is the third and final coat. Good coverage at this point, looking forward to jacking up the green sample and getting full coverage at two coats!

I sanded the pieces to smooth the grittiness (which wasn't bad to start with) and distress the edges, then waxed and rubbed, rubbed and waxed with homemade beeswax furniture polish. As much as I love the idea of non-petroleum furniture polish, I think to get a longer-lasting patina I'll have to go with shoe polish—the cheap version of Annie Sloan soft wax or even Minwax Paste Finishing Wax, simply because I have neutral shoe polish on hand.

I'm so excited by how easy and beautiful this is! I can't wait to tackle the big pieces of furniture!