Home Made Chalk Paint Recipe

Someone asked me if I would post my home made chalk paint recipe. So here it is.

At first I wasn’t sure if a home made chalk paint recipe would work or not.

I sure have tried enough of the DIY home remedies and projects that have failed to be skeptical.

But to my great surprise this one was a success and a big one at that!

If you have seen the price of the brand name “chalk-paint” out there well…..it is shocking.

Wowzers, to say the least!

$32 per quart, no thank you. I paint too much to afford that!

There are all kinds of  chalk paint recipes on Pinterest so I thought I would try one out.

You have three options to choose from when you make your own chalk paint.

You start with paint, of course and then you mix one of these gritty ingredients with water to make an ultra flat paint.

Plaster of Paris

or

Calcium Carbonate

or

Unsanded Grout

I chose Plaster of Paris because it is easy to get. You can usually pick it up at Michaels, Hobby Lobby, Lowes or a number of places.

You can order it on Amazon as well if you live somewhere that is not close to a shopping center.

It lasts a really long time. I think mine cost $12.

I have barely used 1/4 of the box and I painted an entire set of kitchen cabinets.

Here is a visual break down of the recipe for you visual girls.

That is me. I like to see things this way.

Sorry I don’t have the images of the actual mixing of the chalk paint.

They are on the Silverfox’s camera and he is in Maui with my son Josh.

I certainly don’t know where his camera is or how to download the pictures even if I could find it.

Soooooooo, I improvised.

 

Step One :

Mix the plaster with the water and keep mixing until there are no lumps left.

Step Two :

Add the mixture to the paint and stir. If it seems to thick, it is ok to add more water. It won’t affect the color of the paint. While you are painting, it is normal that the paint/mixture will thicken a little bit. Feel free to add more water as you go along to keep it workable. You can make it as thick or as thin as you want to work with if that makes sense. Just keep stirring it every once in a while to keep it smooth.

*Tip :

Do not make more paint than you need to work with for the project that you are working on that day. This chalk paint does not keep. It will eventually get too hard to remix/stir after 24 hours or so. That is why you should mix it in small batches.

Does anyone have any of those cheap laminate furniture pieces or really old kitchen cabinets like this one?

They are the kind that are particle board on the inside and paper on the outside.

They were in pretty good shape in that there were no chunks or really big scratches on them.

But they were really, really, outdated!

I am moving my business/shop over to what was our rental so they needed a face-lift for sure!

I thought that I couldn’t possibly make them any worse so, why not try.

I mixed up my first batch of paint.

To my surprise it thickened up so nicely!

Here is the first door after one coat of paint and a very light sanding with 220 grit sandpaper- mostly to get the grittiness of the plaster off.

I was shocked to touch it and feel how smooth it was after sanding.

I never sanded or preped the surface in any way before painting. I just started painting.

I painted three coats on each side of the doors.

I sanded after the first coat and after the last coat.

I also  distressed it a little bit in the corners and on the edges where it would have naturally been worn.

New hardware ordered from Amazon for the doors. What a difference hardware makes!

If you notice, the picture above has a piece of  tape with a number sharpied on it.

It is a good idea if you are doing kitchen cabinets to number your cabinets when you are taking them down so you get them back to their rightful place when reinstalling them. It is really helpful.

I learned this the hard way on a previous project…..your welcome!

We just spray painted the original brass hinges that were there so save a little money.

Because you know that I might have a little extra spray paint laying around somewhere….maybe.

That, my friends is what chalk paint can do.

You can turn any piece of laminate, wood, or ugly furniture into  a piece of art that you can love again.

I HATED this kitchen before. Yuck!

But now, I love to work in here. I cannot believe it is the same kitchen as before.

I have been doing this a long time. I have been a designer for many years.

I have to say, I think this is the biggest transformation for the least money that I have ever done that I have been the most pleased with.

Discovering this chalk paint recipe was the key for me.

It unlocked so much money saving potential.

Don’t get me wrong, though. It is very labor intensive!

Next I am going to tackle painting wallpaper paneling with the stuff.

I will keep you posted!

This is not even the before picture. The Silverfox has those on his camera too.

I will do a follow up post next week after he gets back to properly show you all of the photos that you, my friends are missing.

But to give you a little idea of what we were working with here is a midway before photo.

It is before we put the “ship-lap” on the walls, and a bunch of other things that we will post about in the future.

We won’t keep you hanging too long.

I had already chalk painted the base cabinet unit, upper unit and drawers at this point.

Here is a sneaky peak of this little corner of the candle kitchen almost done.

It sure is nice to make candles and do painting projects in a kitchen and not a cold garage!

 

There is some fun and exciting news coming soon about this space as well …..stay tuned!!

 

Happy Painting!