Y’all, I did it. I finally tried chalk painting. And let me tell you, once you start I’m not sure there’s any stopping!
Selecting my first victim piece of furniture was easy. I’d been hunting for a small china cabinet for my kitchen to house all my Rae Dunn (I know, I know…) and lucky for me, my mom’s friend found the perfect one! Here’s a shot of the before:
It may not seem like much, but I knew with some TLC and updated hardware, she would shine! My mom lives about 6 hours away, so she loaded it up in her SUV and brought it with her when she visited a few weeks ago. DP is away for work, so it was the perfect girls’ weekend full of shopping and painting!
The first thing on my “furniture painting to-do list” was picking out a paint brand and color. I’d never chalk painted anything before, and I know there are a lot of brands to choose from. I should have researched the brands and made a decision that way, but when we stumbled across Annie Sloan during one of our shopping sprees, I decided to just go for it. Annie Sloan has great name recognition and for good reason! The shop we were in was Southern Charm Home Gallery and they had a great selection of colors and waxes, and the staff was super helpful in guiding me towards the right direction.
After Pinterest searching different color/wax combinations, I decided on French Linen with white wax.
This picture from The Purple Painted Lady helped me decide, and she has great tips on using chalk paint. It’s so much easier than I thought it was going to be!
After picking up some inexpensive paint brushes at Walmart, we poured two glasses of wine wiped down the cabinet to make sure it was clean enough to paint.
The first coat went on super easily, but it did leave some of the original stain showing through. I was a little nervous, but the ladies at Southern Charm had told us this would happen.
Once the first coat dried (which only took 15-20 minutes), we were able to apply the second coat. And voila! What a world of difference!
Tag teaming this with my mom definitely made the job faster, but even without her help I don’t think it would have taken very long. The chalk paint goes on so smoothly and dries very quickly between coats.
We waited about an hour or so for the second coat to dry before applying the wax. This was my favorite part! You brush the wax on a small section (about 1 sqft or so) using a natural fiber brush before lightly wiping it off. It leaves behind a slight residue to create the white washed effect. I loved getting the wax into all the nooks and crannies of this china cabinet! It adds so much focus to all the pretty little details.
Once the wax dried, we added the new hardware and moved the cabinet into place! I couldn’t wait to move my Rae Dunn collection into its new home.
I’ve got a ton of paint left over, so I have a feeling it won’t be long before another piece of furniture gets a makeover!
