Like my blog generally, I’m a couple of years late to the Upcycling and Chalk Paint trend. I had read about it in a variety of home magazines and spent many an hour online looking at blog posts and ‘how to’ videos and thought it really couldn’t be that easy. Could it?
You see, I’m a lazy person. I don’t mind painting but don’t like the fussiness of the prep. I’m not a fan of minor details, I like to see the bigger picture, quick results without the fuss.
I had a few things I wanted to try and change in the house and thought I would give it a go so took the plunge, looked up my local stockist, TN22Sussex and went off for chat to them. Steve and Janie at TN22 gave me loads of advice and came back stocked up with Annie Sloan books, brushes, paints and waxes.
My first project was to redo my beech coloured Malm bedside cabinets from IKEA. I like the Malm as they have big drawers and are simple in design. But I didn’t like the beech colour and wasn’t going to fit in with a new blue scheme I was planning in the bedroom.
Going for the French Grey colour I started splashing it on. And it really was that easy. I went for the rough approach, going every which way instead of perfect brush strokes and I was thrilled with the way it came out. The wax made it hard wearing and 18 months on and a lot of daily use later, they’re still looking great. The odd scratch here and there but that adds to the charm of it.
My two top tips, don’t use this paint in too hot a weather, it dries as you’re painting. Makes it quicker to finish off but sometimes can give a patchy finish. And thin the paint a little before you start the second coat, I found this really helps to stop it feeling a little clumpy.
My second project was a Next chest of drawers gifted to us a few years ago. It was a simple walnut type colour but I wanted some fun in it. So again, armed with French Grey I worked on this with straight brush strokes and three coats of wax. I also took off the old handles, filled in the holes and drilled new holes with lovely new knobs to give us a new chest of drawers!
Since then I’ve also painted a little bookcase that my grandad made for my mum in the 40’s and whilst I love the outcome (complete with fun wallpaper) I’m going to re-do it in a different colour over the next few months to fit in with my ever changing design schemes.
I’ve also done a table for the office, some chairs, and a huge project in Cornwall where we did all the woodwork in the downstairs of the house (more to come on those projects later)
I’m finishing a wardrobe at the moment and also a small step stool for the bedroom. I’m a complete convert to the Chalk Paint revolution. It allows you to easily and cheaply update something to make you feel like it’s something new. It also allows you to experiment and be creative. Long live the revolution!
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