Home Baked Chalk Paint

I learned some things in the last 2 days.

1) I have a lot of crap. Stuff that Ive held on to for gawdknowswhy but now that Ive got a purge-a-thon going on, my dining room table, the chair in my living room  and 2 corners in every room are overflowing with stuff I never need to see again. I keep opening my pantry to door stare lovingly at the neat, organized tidiness, knowing that every single cookbook and small appliance in there are the ones I love and use. Holy cow, I feel like Ive lost 10pds. When you purge the things that you dont love, its all of a sudden clear as a bell as to what you can easily live without.

2) I have some amazing friends, family and followers. Not gonna lie. Once the cat was out of the bag, reality started to sink in...and I got a bit woozey...but the amount of supportive emails, FB messages, texts and phone calls from everyone made yesterday really great! Especially because most of the readers to my blog and my Revived Vintage Facebook page are people Ive never met...didnt know Wednesday and the encouragement they took the time to send me was truly just amazing. I was blown away with the kindness of strangers...however, as one of my readers pointed out, we're actually kinda friends now. Thank you.

Alright, lets talk Chalk paint. *please note: this is my own personal opinion on chalk paint, of which I am entitled too...if you madly love the retail stuff and paint the town red with it every single night...I think thats absolutly awesome*

Ok..so. I love the retail stuff in the purpose it serves and as another option for what I do, However, like every thing in the world, it has its pros and cons..the biggest con for me is price. ..The retail AS stuff is madly expensive and altho: Yes,  you can use it (most of the time, Ive had a fail or 3) without sanding and without priming and the color selection is vast and beautiful, in spite of ALL of that, I spend the dough on quarts very painfully. Its also very thick. Too thick for me so I water it down slightly, which can make for inconsistency...and if Im being honest here, the AS wax ---unbeknownst to me, says wear gloves. I didnt and got red-itchy-dry and cracked hands. I guess that stuff isn't as "environmental"  as I thought...So, in the end, I only use it when I really really really wanted to, to help stretch that quart out, and now use gloves at the waxing-part...and well. All of thats no fun.

So, as a "I can do that" kinda girl, I whipped up some here at home. I found the recipe at the library. I cannot, for the life of me remember the name of the magazine, but there is recipes all over the internet too..This is the one I used.

The shelf I was going to paint with it was in rough shape...and had that lovely shiney varnish on it ...so perfect for this non-sanding/non-priming experiment.

I knew this shelf didnt need a whole cup of paint, so I halved the recipe.

This is the grout I used and found at Home Depot for around $4. If I only use it for chalk paint, this bag is going to last me the rest of my 2 dogs life combined...in actual dog years.

One of the cons with this recipe is you can only make what youll use right now, today...and mix it when you need more. It does not store at all, it dries right out and it dries fast. I had to give it a good lil mix with my popsicle stick to get the grout and paint co-mingling but really, who cares about that...minor stuff.. It went on beautifully (at first) with the perfect amount of thickness I like and covers really well. I did have to add a few trickles of water after I walked away to answer my phone (and sat down with a coffee and chatted) as it had really thickened while I was gone, and continued to thicken up the longer I took painting with it. At some points, I had to chuck the mix and make another batch because it was just too thick. The painted area's stuck solid to the unsanded and unprimed shelf perfectly..That's a Pro! It was a rough finish tho, and a downer part was the parts I painted last had a different consistency than the first painted parts because it thickened and clumped up the longer it sat mixed. Then I kept watering it down,and it was thinner in some spots...so a few coats were still needed. I had to sand the entire piece down when I was done to give it a smooth finish because it was gritty.   Now remember, this isn't an environmental paint here..Its still latex paint...and its still grout...just mixed together, so when your doing this part--please wear a mask!! Its a messy job with fine powder floating around that will choke up yer lungs. Also, don't toss yer mix in the garbage or down the drain...we're still dealing with paint--- take your cups to the same place you take old quarts too..Overall- it did the job! It wasn't as easy to crack the can, but the pro's of not needing to sand-strip prime was a bonus! The cons might have balanced that out...LOL, but since I have more time than money....It was a happier option.

I mixed up a few different colors but did restain the shelf part...you know I love some bare wood. I needed a couple coats with this paint and did both of them in less than 30 minutes because the dry time was so quick.

I added paintable wallpaper detail to the top...I wanted to see if that would paint well too...check, it did. I distressed the entire piece and waxed it with eco-friendly furniture wax...(I think that's what its called too)

 There you have it. Homemade chalk paint. For me, it worked better than my expectations for the no sand-strip or prime factor. I love how I can use any color I already have, (gallons and gallons and gallons) and you cant beat the price if you already have the paint. The downside is, you have to mix it as you need it, it thickens and clumps so fast (so your actually wasting a lot of paint and time), the consistency is all over the place on your piece and it needs to be sanded afterwards and that's messy. Its also not an environmentally friendly paint. Its still smelly latex and its still grout just mixed together. So, my 2 cents is....Ill use it again when I want to skip the pre-sand, especially on larger pieces...I might even just choose to use it as a (tinted) primer, then carry on with latex afterwards.  I didnt find it to be less work than just using regular latex honeslty...at first, yes it was, but the "more work" was just reshuffled to the end.. Ill keep it as an option in my tool box, but Ill also keep hoping for a premix that I can afford or keep playin more scratch tickets until I win..LOL