DIY Chalk Paint Tutorial With A Mistake Thrown In.

I have been getting e-mails about the DIY Chalk Paint, so I figured I would post on how I make it again and my latest project, a dresser. I got a bit ahead of myself and forgot to take a good before shot and by the time I remembered, I had already sanded the drawers down. At any rate, here is my before on the dresser. Actually, it is the first before. :)

I know the picture is bad, but it's the best I have. For this dresser I sanded everything down and stained the entire dresser with MinWax Jacobean and left the drawers so that I could paint them. For the drawers I went to a local store and bought a sample pot of Behr Paint. The color I picked was Pewter Mug. I mixed about a tablespoon and a half of Plaster Of Paris into the sample pot of paint. You can add more or less depending on how thick you want the paint. I like to get the samples because I can change colors often and you can reuse the paint another day by just adding a bit of water to it and mixing it up really well. Don't forget that when you add the Plaster Of Paris, you need to mix it a while because it can get lumpy. It dries fast and if you do end up with lumps, they can easily be sanded down. I painted 1 coat on each drawer right over whatever varnish was left on it. Here is what it looked like on my second before.

I thought it turned out perfect, but being that I was in a hurry that day, I accidentally picked up the wrong clear coat. Not a good thing to do, especially when the clear was an oil based product and not a water based . The next day I had to sand down every drawer and start over again. Anyone who thinks DIY Chalk Paint will not hold up...........................you are wrong. It took me about 15 to 20 minutes of sanding on each drawer. That paint did not want to come off! So after a very long weekend, here is the dresser. I am thankful it is finished.

And for anyone that is wondering, the letters and numbers were something that I stuck on before painting. After the paint was dry, I peeled off the lettering and lightly distressed the piece with 150 grit sand paper. I am happy that this turned out like it did. Sometimes good things come out of a mistake.