The table was a dark stain with a really shiny finish but it was really beat up - hence the tablecloth. But the table was Ethan Allan and in good shape beyond the surface. I tried the diy chalk paint recipe that involves mixing plaster of paris with water then adding paint. The yellow is the leftover paint from our new door project.
I had a few problems. I'd never worked with chalk paint before so I had trouble getting the right consistency, my first coat or two was really thin and barely covered anything but the next batch was too thick and starting getting chunky. I finally figured it out but by then my table was quite, uhm, textured in places. The second issue is related - the dark cover was really hard to cover. I had read that chalk paint doesn't need a stripped or sanded surface to start with but that it helps to do so anyway if you have a dark finish. So I did a light sanding - only to later read on a different blog that it can be really hard to cover a dark stained surface if you sand it before hand. Well, that would have been nice to know earlier!
At this point, I was annoyed. It just did not look good. I wasn't really upset because I went in to this project knowing I couldn't really lose, I could always just put the tablecloth back on. But I really wanted it to work! I ended up sanding it to remove some of the bigger texture marks and giving it a few coats of paste wax and it started to grow on me. By the time I got it inside where it could in the corner instead of staring at it, the issues disappeared and now I really like it.
And to be fair to the method, we had issues with the yellow paint not covering the door well too so I think it also might have been an issue with this particular paint. So I'm not jumping on the chalk paint bandwagon just yet but neither am I giving up on the idea. If I do decide to try it again, I might try a real version at least until I know what I'm doing.
Although that pictures above is a bit deceiving, 30 minutes after the table was in place, it already looked like this:
Even more reason to ignore the imperfections and appreciate the pop of color.
Looks great! I have a side table that is in need of paint. What is chalk paint? I'm assuming that it's different from chalkboard paint. I could google it, but I'd rather just ask.
ReplyDeleteIt's slighty textured and coated with wax instead of a poly coat. It has a matt (chalky :-) finish. It 's hard to describe but it has a homemade look to it, and I mean that in a good way.
ReplyDeleteAnnie's chalk paint is probably the most popular brand. But I think homemade chalk paint and homemade chalkboard paint are actually the same thing since the recipes I've seen normally involve some sort of texturizing material added in (plaster of paris is most popular but I've seen other things too like baking soda and cornstarch). I think the different in the two diy version is you don't wax the chalkboard version and you do the chalk?