DIY Chalk Paint {tutorial}

Once upon a time, long, long ago- I went to a yard sale, it was summer and the yard sale was closing down. The family told us we could take whatever we wanted, so Z and I basically cleaned house. We left with ginormous  pile of goodies. Then, sometime last fall, I primed pretty much everything in sight in my project room with Kilz. I mean, puppers beware!- cause I almost painted them for good measure!
 Then all said items went to the spare room for a long, long time. {cue sad face} There everything stayed until a certain {wonderful} grandmother was coming to town and I was forced to get my buns in gear.

This is how we got from this outdated wooden headboard to a chalk painted beaut. I don't own real chalk paint and haven't found a project that's worth the high cost yet. So for now- I'll stick to this formula by the awesome Sherry @ No Minimalist Here. I pretty much stuck with her recipe-

MIX: 2/3 cup FLAT LATEX PAINT

with 1/3 PLASTER of PARIS

MIX WELL- you can add a little water to the paint until the desired chalkiness and consistency are found. You can see about how think I made my paint. I just mixed my paint in an old Tupperware container-Oh yeah, it can be stored for later; just add a little bit of water each time.

Alright, let's get to it!
1] First, with homemade chalk paint, like the real stuff, you do NOT need to prep the surface or prime your surface first! I had primed mine months before I knew what I wanted to do with it (remember my lengthy yard sale tale?}

2] Now, mix up your paint-I got the plaster of paris from Lowe's and the whole thing cost me 6 bucks. I used Olympic flat paint from Lowe's and had it color matched to Blind Date by Allen + Roth for Valspar.

This DIY version of chalk paint paint dries really fast, so make sure you work in sections.

Do you see how the paint looks a little streaky {above^} right in the center where I'm painting it? It won't dry like that, so don't sweat it! After awhile the paint for thicker- again you can just add a little more water, stir really well,  and keep using it.

One coat of paint was just about enough to cover the board. But you can see where I had done some touch ups and they were a different shade, so make sure you don't miss any spots unless you want to do 2 coats of paint all over!

3] Next, you want to do a light sand all over. If any streaks didn't dry flat this will take care of that. I used 320 grit sand paper.

4] To distress I used a 220 grit sanding block and a putty knife to distress the edges. Personal preference comes into this part big time. I want my piece to look like it was a little banged up over time- nothing crazy.

5] If you're doing a glaze, now's the time to add that finish. I have to admit, I'm pretty sucky at glazing. I don't know what the problem is- I've watched the tutorials, it's just not working for me. So I skipped that step and went straight to wax. 

6] I used Johnson's clear paste wax- nothing fancy. It was hard to track down furniture wax locally- you can find a few versions on Amazon- and locally I found Ace Hardware had a bunch to choose from. This one cost me 10 bucks.  It stunk to high heck so use it somewhere ventilated but it did the job. Make sure you let the wax cure, and you're good to go! I love the shine it adds to the headboard!

There you have it- my headboard cost me less than 20 bucks and I have a ton of supplies left over- the whole headboard took 1 1/3 cups of paint and 2/3 cups of the Plaster of Paris. The paste wax is still almost full- not bad right?!

Oh yeah, the bed is just a twin and the headboard is going along the side of it. I like to throw a bunch of pillows on it and use it like a day bed/couch when company isn't here. 

Some of these pics I took on a sunny day {below}, then others {above} it was a little overcast. I cannot believe how different the colors of the headboard is in each one!! This is one of those paint colors looks totally different in different lighting. I'm glad I didn't try it on my walls!

The cute little pillow cover in the center was purchased off Etsy- it's made from a vintage tea towel. Love. The bedding I bought had been marked down three times at TJMaxx- and I paid 20 bucks. Almost the same as the pillow cover! lol The frames above the bed were from Target- but I don't think they sell them anymore.
Oh yeah- and my Grams was super comfy in the space, so I call it a success. Peace out homies- thanks for stopping by!

Looking for places to link up your projects? Check out my Party page.

I'm also linked up here.

✥ Superbowl Sunday ✥

I may live in Utah- but I grew up in Massachusetts.

 I don't know who you guys are rooting for today-but as for me-

"Go Patriots!!"

 One of my very best friends from back East lives out here in UT now, too. She asked me to make her some Patriot shoes for today, so of course I was all about it.
She loved a hand-painted pair online, selling for $300!! These are a pretty decent imitation of those. I used fabric paint and patience! {don't mind the cell phone pics!}

I hope you all enjoy the game today- and don't cry too hard when the Giants get spanked! lol

Looking for places to link up your projects? Check out my Party page.

I'm also linked up here.

✥ Reader Feature: Paint the Shabby Chic Look {Tutorial!!} ✥

You know when you see someone's work, and you think to yourself- "Holy Cow! I wish I could do that?" Right- Well, let me introduce you to Meg from Meg and Mum's. She's a ridiculously talented Aussie with sassy personality and a love for salvaging and repurposing old furniture.

It wasn't until about 15 months ago that I started to really get into it and developed my blog Meg and Mum's, where I showcase my furniture and also from time to time I will feature my Mum's awesome mosaics.  She is really talented and does some beautiful work. I now have a huge passion for restoring furniture and have been lucky enough in the last twelve months to make a bit of extra pocket money from doing it.  Being a stay at home Mum it has definitely come in handy and it also keeps my body, mind and soul happy and healthy. Now Becca has asked me to share with you a tutorial or two.  I have never really posted a true tutorial in the past, purely because I was learning as I went and, well... I was too lazy.  

But I can share with you how I do the French/Shabby finish.
Now I'm not saying that this is the "right" way to do it and you might find that people who have been doing it a lot longer than I have do it completely different, but this is what works for me.  Also, the descriptions of the kind of paint I use may be different to what you use in whatever country you may live.  I'll give it a go anyway. Here's a two toned side table I did recently.

 1.  I start by sanding the table back with 120 grit sandpaper.  I normally don't go heavy handed with this, but if it looks as if the varnish or paint is coming off too easily I will go hard at it or take my heat gun to it and scrape the paint off.

2.  After sanding I obviously get rid of all the dust and give it a good clean.  Then I give the table one coat of acrylic undercoat/primer.  If I am going blue, I will normally undercoat with grey.  Just normal acrylic paint is fine.

3.  Once this is dry I will go over the whole piece with a fine tooth comb to see if there are any dings, scratches or holes that need to be filled.  I always recommend giving it one undercoat first as after it is painted the flaws will really become obvious.  Then I will use painters bog or builders bog to fill it up. This isn't the actual table I'm referring too, but it's the only photo I have to give you an example.  All the holes will be more visible after the first undercoat.  Once you fill it, wait until it dries and then give it a sand with a 180 grit to give it a smooth even finish.  Unfortunately I don't have any photos of filling. I also have a look to see if there are any gaps or light cracks.  I will use a gap filler for this.  (My husband is a painter so I've been lucky to learn all the tricks).

4.  I give the whole thing a very light sand, wipe down and then give it another undercoat.

5.  Then I apply two coats of my colour choice in acrylic, with a light sand in between with 600 grit sandpaper.  This makes it feel really smooth.  Acrylic usually dries pretty quick, like about half an hour.  But I always wait overnight before I start the distressing.  For the distressing, I get a 180 grit and lightly sand on the edges or "peaks".  The more you distress furniture, the better you'll become at knowing where the best places are to distress.  I was really quite messy and heavy handed to begin with.

6.  Once it is all distressed, I apply a dark English Walnut stain by brushing it on in sections.  So I will start with a leg, brush the stain on, quite sloppily I might add, and then wipe that section down with a clean lint free cloth.  Then you'll see it magically transform before your eyes!  The finish is spectacular. Once that is all dry I give the whole thing a coat of poly, and that's pretty simple to use.  Just follow the instructions on the can! As I said, my way might be very different to someone else's but it works for me.

  I've been asked by some people whether I use a brush, roller or spray gun.  For me it depends on what the weather is like.  If it is super cold or scorching hot outside I might bring a piece inside to paint with a brush.  If weather permits I will use the spray gun which is a hundred times faster obviously.  But in saying that, I find using the brush can be quite relaxing and therapeutic.  I've only used the roller once and I wasn't that keen on the effect it left.  I can kind of zone out when using the brush.  On a couple of occasions I have used can spray paint for really small projects if I happen to have some sitting around.  But these are really expensive where I live so I rarely use it.

You will see from my blog that I am also a big fan of all things retro, which is what I prefer to furnish my home with.  But I find the process of doing the shabby finish very rewarding and therapeutic.

If you've reached this point after reading my essay above, thank you so much for bearing with me.

And thanks to the lovely Becca for having me here. I'd be over the moon if you'd stop my blog and say hello!
Megs x

✧✧✧✧✧

Isn't Meg great?! I wish I could somehow absorb all the knowledge she has about redoing furniture. {hmm, jealous!} I'm like as novice as you can get compared to her! I love her tip about painting the piece and then filling the dings, since they'll show up better. I never would have known to do that!

✥ Matthew Heller Art Knock Off ✥

I saw the pic below ages ago, probably last Spring right when I began blogging. I adore the silvery letters, the classic look of the typography. 

source

From the moment I saw it I knew it was meant to sit over my couch, like from before I had even bought our new sectional. I also knew I just had to put "our song" on it, "Bubble Toes" by Jack Johnson. That was before I knew the name of the art- it's "Homage to Music" check it out m-kay, Matthew Heller and I are on the same wavelength for this one. Oh- and in case you were wondering, Molly Sim's has Heaven by Bryan Adams.

And here's a pic of the same piece from the artist's {Matthew Heller} website.
I like the pic from Molly Sim's home a lot more- the words look much softer and purpley- probably from photo editing or maybe the lighting in the room- but whatever the case I dig it.

This project was a real pain the buttocks. Like serious. I don't think I would ever do it again, well, maybe I would BUT NOT the way I did the first time.

Here's how it went down.
1] I scored a super large "piece of art" many moons ago at the close of a yard sale. Yes, sometimes being the last stragglers into a yard sale can score ya a massive piece of original Santa Fe art {and the before pic seems to be MIA, since I took it a million years ago last summer!}

2] Have it sit in your spare bedroom/office/"trash pit for projects" for months while you decide what color the frame will be. Prime the frame and the whole painting to cover the Santa Fe-ness. Wait an inordinate amount of time, decide on oil-rubbed bronze and finally spray paint the sucker during a wind storm off your third floor balcony.
{3rd floor balcony and wind storm optional, in fact- avoid them if at all possible.}

3] Because I was repurposing this canvas I had to level out some of the crazy shrubs painted at the bottom. The artist had built up the paint and it stuck up off the frame at least 2mm. First, I sanded down the most prominent areas.
Then, I mixed paint and Blended Fibers Texture Gel to create a thicker paint, looking more like putty, to level out the texture a bit. I painted on layers of this mixture until I was left with a texture I thought would work for my new piece.
Then I used plain old white paint for the entire background.

4] Format the text to your song on Microsoft Word, I used Publisher. I measured my frame, then set up a text box in the same length width ratio. For example, if you frame is 24 in. by 36 in. then you would want the text box to be in a 2:3 ratio, so you could make the box 2" by 3" or more realistically 6" by 9".

5] Copy the text you've picked into your box and change the "Alignment and Spacing" so the text fills the line.

6] Print'er up- You all know I use Staples to print cuz they're cheap yo! This print cost me $3.40.
 
7] I use spray adhesive to attach the print up to contact paper- you know the shelf liner that comes on a roll. I bought the cheapest kind- it was like 3-4 bucks. If you spray the back of your paper, then spray the front of the plastic, then wait for a minute or two, they will be stuck together permanently!

8] Now you need to make a stencil- this is the part that super sucked. I used my Exacto knife and several refills blades to cut the letters out.
To be honest, I thought about buying a Cricket or Silhouette for this project. I thought if there were ever a project to make the buy worth it, this would've been it. But then my crazy type A personality kicked in and I was all, hey if I cut the letters out I wont' have to worry about spacing of the letters or letters not being perfectly straight. And then I thought- I can do this, who needs a fancy schmancy machine? Answer. I do, or I did.


9] The good news is- once the letters were cut out I was able peel off the backing to the shelf liner and attach my stencil to the canvas. Use a credit card or something like it to rub all over the stencil, making sure it adheres well. I had good adhesion everywhere except where there was still lot of texture.


10] I mixed versions of silver paint and painted the letters the darkest at the bottom and lightest at the top. I added a few drops of purple paint, cause remember, I was looking for a result more like Molly Sim's room.
Here's the stencil coming off-
Then the after shot-

I decided I'm not really good with random. If I copied my inspiration piece and used darker paint randomly in places my mind would constantly be looking for a pattern in the dark and light paint. So  a ombre color pallet makes a lot more sense for me.

So there you have it.
If I was to do it again, I would def use vinyl lettering cut by a machine or if not that, then plain old stencils. This project was craaazy long- but, it's good to know you can make your own stencils using contact paper, right?- Even stencils that are as complicated as this one.

Molly Sims' art piece, Heaven, measured 48” by 80”. My homemade art is 40" by 50". I would've liked it to be a little wider- but no worries, I  think it fills the space.

So that's how you do it- if you're crazy type-A and decide you want your very own copy of a super duper famous and expensive art piece.

What have you made lately?

Looking for places to link up your projects? Check out my Party page

I'm also linked up here.