Chalk paint recipe and before and after

I loved the final product of this chest.  It was an item that was always in our house growing up so when my mom gave it to me, I wanted to give it some new life. I love how chalk paint is a different texture than paint so it seems softer and the brush strokes don't show. See the recipe below.  On furniture it can be sanded on the edges to distress or just leave the full coverage.  It is good to cover it when it dries with a layer of wax and buff the surface. If you want to paint several items, you can save alot of pennies by making your own chalk paint.

Chalk Paint:
1 part plaster of Paris with water to mix
3 parts paint

The paint must be flat paint.  Other paints clump up and if they have a sheen in them it doesn't look like chalk paint anyway. I used plaster of Paris from Ace hardware (in a milk carton shaped box). Mix with water till it is smooth before adding the paint.  I used a whisk to combine.  You want to make sure there are no lumps.  I also used Olympic interior flat white paint from Lowes. It's best to only make as much as you are going to use to paint an item because it starts to clump up and change consistency.  I did save some overnight in a jar and it worked just fine. You may want to sand edges and then buff with a light coat of wax. On this item I didn't sand at all and just waxed it (Briwax from Ace) when dry. 

Latest weekend projects...Pantry and Bathroom vanity

Before and afters around our house....I love before and after pictures!  They inspire me to get my own projects done one at at a time.  Here are a few of my latest weekend projects and since pictures inspire me maybe they can be an inspiration to start on something for you.  I actually tend to put these things off and then it feels so good when they are actually done.

The Pantry before and after:

This is what all four of the shelves looked like but I wanted to get a close up on their messiness here!  

Here is what all four shelves look like now.  Yay, I breath a sigh of relief when I walk through the pantry now and I have to walk through because the door to my garage is in this room.  I was feeling myself cringe when passing by....a sure time a change is needed!  Baskets seem to be super expensive even when on sale, but sometimes the cost is worth it!! Total cost-$66 for the baskets and $6 for the curtain and spring rod.

Last weekend I finished painting our bathroom cupboards.  I have to say, I wish that I would have used chalk paint, but I already had some white paint, so I used it instead.  Chalk paint with a sealer or wax just looks so finished and makes it hard to see brush strokes.  My recommendation after doing this would be to use at least 2 or 3 coats of primer (instead of the 1 that I used) when painting cupboards so that you only have to put on one coat of paint at the end (minimizing the visual brush strokes).  However, I love my cupboards white so much more than before's natural oak....that I am leaving them alone now.

Before....the floor boads aren't finished here either...still in progress!:

After:  Feels brighter in the whole room:

Total cost: $23 for the hardware...(but I already had the paint.)  Still, painting is one of the most economical ways to improve a room! 

More gourds!

I'm having fun experimenting with all my dried gourds.  These are dipper gourds, named because the native Americans used them for spoons and dippers.  You can see that they are large enough to be made into a ladle.  One of the gourds that I dried out cracked and I am going to see if I can make it into a ladle that just hangs on the wall.  

These really were fun to grow. They grow large and fast so they are fun for kids to watch and count because the plant really goes crazy, with alot of gourds coming from one plant. I had mine on a dripper system so it got plenty of water. You can see we got a ton of them once we finally picked them all!!  

You can't eat these so it is more of a fun thing to grow and watch and hopefully have some for drying, painting etc.  

So then we tried drying all of these.  Sadly out of all of these, only about 10 were dried successfully. I followed the same procedure as the smaller gourds for drying...(see last post)...wiping them off with a bleach/water mixture about once a month.  All these types of things take a little experience I think and this was the first time I tried it.  Some of them just got soft and I had to throw them out, but others dried inside and out.

I spray painted this one with some white paint....Ace brand spray paint is not very good by the way! Next time I will use a different one. Then I used some masking tape to spray on a gold stripe and added some glitter paint circles after using a milk cap and pencil to make the circles.

DIY Crackle finish

I love using Crackle medium on items around my house.  If you've never tried it, it's easy and I'm gonna show you how!  I recommend trying it first on something like picture frames or small items before using it on a piece of furniture.  I painted my daughter's whole bed with this stuff, but I'll show you that at the end.  So I had this picture on my wall that my son did and it was just tacked up with command strips.

 I found this frame at the goodwill after looking several different times (you know how it is) and it was 6.99, which is not a steal-of-a-deal, but hey, lots cheaper than the store when you get a matte and a frame!

So yay, here goes the project!!  This picture will finally have a better home:) 

What you'll need: 

Two contrasting colors of paint (acrylic or water based house paint)

Folk Art Crackle Medium (see pic below)

and a paint brush or two of course!

With the crackle effect you will need one color for underneath that shows though the cracks and one top color that does the CRACKING!! Start with an underneath color unless you want the underneath color to be the present color of the object.  I haven't really done this without painting an underneath coat tho....but you can always experiment.  If you don't know what kind of paint is presently there....it's possible it may not work.

Give the frame or object a few coats.  This is a yellow wall paint that is left over from one of my rooms.  The crackle medium that I will apply next says to use acrylic paint.  I have found that acrylic artist paint and house paint both work fine.  

Let that dry.  Next, you will brush the crackle medium all over the piece.  You don't need to do a heavy coat, but since it is clear, sometimes it is hard to see where you have painted and where you haven't so give it some sideways glances to see where it is already shiny and where your brush has been.  This is what the crackle medium I used looks like.  I got it at Hobby Lobby, but this is a common brand and I think you may even be able to find it at Walmart.

Let this clear coat dry before applying your topcoat color.  A topcoat has to be applied before the cracking will occur so you won't see anything until you apply that final color.  You want to have two contrasting colors so that the cracks are noticeable.  

Yes one of my favorite colors, aqua blue on the top....You want to apply this last paint color in one coat if possible so get a good brushful before making each stroke.  Do not go over and over your brush strokes and do not add a second coat.  You may not notice the cracking right away, but it will happen as it dries.  Certain paints seem to be more dramatic than others.

Woohoo, there it is!

And ready to go back on the wall!

Here is my daughter's bed which I painted with crackle paint.  And yes!  I used just those tiny bottles for the whole headboard and foot board, BUT I think it just took 4 of them so not as bad as I expected!  Here I used dark purple underneath and white on the top.  Let me know if you try this and what you think!!