Desk renovation using Chalk Paint

One of my favorite paints to use is chalk paint. It’s just my personal preference, whether I make the paint myself or buy it already made. For this project I bought an 8 oz bottle of Waverly Chalk paint. For my next project I will teach you how to make the chalk paint. You have an unlimited choice of colors should you make your own. But we’ll save that for a later blog.

Items needed:

*Waverly acrylic chalk paint. (I used the matte paint) depending on the size of your furniture you may need more than one 8 oz bottle. I only needed one.

*Soft bristle paint brush.

*Sponge sander

*Polycrylic in a can (not the spray can)

*drop cloth (to keep from getting paint all over your floors)

Make sure you wipe down the piece of furniture you will be painting. I just used a damp cloth. Painting is messy, at least for me it is, so place a drop cloth under the piece you are going to paint.
The paint is thick. So, the first thing you want to do is water it down a little bit. I poured about half the bottle of paint into a container and added about 1/4 cup of water. And I mixed it well.
Start by painting your first coat. I love the way this paint adheres to the furniture. There was no need to sand it either. Let it dry for a few hours. Don’t worry, it doesn’t look pretty, yet, but it will after you add more coats.
I only did three coats on this one because I wanted to give it that distressed look. So I didn’t need it to be a solid white. After my third coat I sanded the desk down lightly with a sponge sander. (Those are perfect for these types of projects.) In the spots where I want it to look more distressed I applied more pressure to achieve that look. For instance, the corners and the edges. That’ll give it that distressed look
If you don’t want that distressed look I would suggest adding a fourth coat of paint. Let it dry then lightly sand it and wipe it down. The beauty of using chalk paint is that you can achieve different looks. And since I’m going for the worn/distressed look my three coats were perfect for this project.
Finally, after distressing it, I wiped it down and added two coats of Polycrylic to seal the paint. Make sure the first coat is dry before you add the second coat.