Chalk Paint Makeovers

I have recently discovered Annie Sloan chalk paint and I am having a fabulous time with it! It really is everything they say it is. You can paint on any surface with no priming or prepping-what more could an impatient painter want? Before I painted anything or even purchased the paint I did a lot of reading about it on the internet and watched some You Tube videos. The best videos I found were from a young lady named Christen who has a blog called Blue Egg, Brown Nest. 

My first project was a chest of drawers in our guest bedroom. This chest, and the bed that goes with it, have been in my family for three generations and they have seen better days! There is no way to refinish it with a stain because there are some rather sizable gouges out of the furniture and some of the chest has a very fine thin veneer on it-and some of that veneer is missing in places. So, I thought a nice coat of chalk paint would be exactly what the doctor ordered. It can cover up some of the battles of time and make it into a new treasure with a fresh start.

This is my "before" shot. I think the dresser has great lines and tons of character! I forgot to take a picture of it until I had taken most of the hardware off~but at least I remembered. I'm not very good at taking pictures as I go through a project. I get so into it that I forget someone else may like to see it along the way. 

First I painted the drawers. The details are just gorgeous with the paint on. I am loving this!

Next was the body of the chest. It was so simple to paint and I was more and more thrilled with my Annie Sloan paint as I progressed. Oh-a little bit goes a long way, too. I bought a quart can and barely scratched the surface for this project. 

The bed was as fun as the dresser! We had one of the side rails go missing in this last move, so I have been waiting a while for my husband to make  a new one for me. But before he could do that, it that meant I needed to find bed hooks-that's how the side rail affixed to the headboard and footboard. I finally found some online on a site that sells antique reproduction hardware. 

After the bed was repaired and assembled, I got busy painting it. It was in worse shape than the dresser and I could tell it was happy to be painted and loved again. This is what one of the posts of the footboard looked like before.

And here is the whole bed-I forgot to take a picture before I started, but at least I had only been painting for a few minutes when I remembered. 

And this is how the dresser looked when finished........just a little sandpaper and wax and it was fabulous! I decided to use the old hardware-it gave it the look I wanted.

And here is the finished bed-ready for company. 

With that painting project under my belt, I decided to see what else in my house could use a good coat of paint. I have a mirror and a pair of very tall candlesticks that have caught my eye. :) But before I even got around to painting them I found myself at A Classy Flea where I picked up a round table that I had just the spot for in my bedroom. I can tell that this painting thing could become an addiction! It was grey when I bought it, and I wanted it to be red-but this time all I needed was a sample size jar of Annie Sloan chalk paint. I picked Emperor's Silk. 

I told you I am really bad with "before" pictures and I forgot to take one of the table before I had it upside down and ready to paint. It's really heavy to be such a small table and I didn't want to turn it back over again! So, here it is-upside down. 

I only put one coat of red paint on, took it outside to sand some of the places I wanted to show through and then put on clear wax, followed by dark wax. I really like the way it came out. 

Some of the grey shows through and so does some of the stain that was under the grey paint. My husband thinks it looks like it needs to be refinished-but I love the results.

The next big project in our house is going to be our bedroom. We are going to rip out the carpet and put down a hardwood floor, add wainscoting, and paint. I am going to make new drapes and we're going to put up new rods for them. So, this little table is just a small first step in our master bedroom make-over.

I had a blank wall in my living room that I decided needed some of my attention. I needed a narrow piece of furniture because this was where we walk through this room to get to other rooms in our house. I found this picture and liked the coziness of the table and small chair on this wall-and it even looked like it could be my house with the stairs there. It was my inspiration.

I found a gorgeous old cabinet in an antique mall and it was perfect in that spot. But, I just needed something else to finish out the area. I found a child's chair at another antique mall and it was perfect......except for the color........

I didn't really mind the red--but it was so shiny! It just wasn't going to work. I bought a small jar of grey and I was in business!! A little wax and I was done!

I found the red metal bucket at Hobby Lobby and I put three old books in it. 

And here is my finished project. I have a battery operated candle in the lantern and I have added seasonal decorations in with it. (I had seashells during the summer and I have acorns, leaves and pinecones in it right now.) I bought the wall clock at World Market and the rest are things I had around the house. 

I still have paint left over and I am excited about painting something else-I'll post more pics in the future. For now it's back to the sewing machine.