Chalk Painted Distressed Furniture

I dreaded doing this project, but it was SO EASY. And didn't take nearly as long as I anticipated. First, I made my own chalk paint because the finish was so smooth that I needed something with some grit to attach to the slick finish, but wanted a distressed look for Momo's vintage nursery.  I purchased some wax from Lowe's at the suggestion of the paint counter man, but it turns out it messed up what I was going for. I didn't even need wax or varnish for this project - just the homemade chalk paint and some spray gloss I used as a sealer.

Chalk Paint Recipe:
For the chalk paint, mix 2 tbsp water with 2 tbsp plaster of paris. Then, mix in two cups of paint. I can't stress that you follow the steps in order enough - I ruined some paint trying to mix the stuff in the paint without mixing together first.

Then, I painted - not loading my brush with paint - just a little at a time to make sure I could see a smidge of the original finish through some of the strokes.  And that was it. No more coats were needed. So I sprayed with my gloss and was done!  The photo below is really the only comparison photo I have. The furniture had a pink tint to it, but not quite a nursery pink. And, Mo's room was going to be blue and white anyway.

The tops of the chest and nightstand are a light gray. The original colors had a very dark mauve/grayish color on top and in a laminate material. I thought a little gray would be needed to cover, but in truth I think the chalk paint in white would have been thick enough. But I like the contrast, so I used the gray. It is plain Behr paint + primer from Home Depot - no chalk added and it worked fine. I did two coats of it though because I wasn't really going for distressed look on top and wanted to cover that mauve color pretty well.

 

The light in this shot above makes it look pink, the shot below of the nightstand is a pretty accurate representation of the color.