I know everyone in blogland is on the Chalk Paint Bandwagon. I’ve read countless posts on how wonderful it is. And I’ve seen beautiful results. But so far….I’m not a fan.
I have a few pieces in our bedroom that are wood. For the most part, the wood is dark. This piece is from our Craftsman days in San Diego when the trim in our house was a darkly stained wood and so many of our pieces of furniture were, too. I’ve been wanting to paint the various pieces in some sort of cohesive color and, hopefully, brighten up the bedroom in the process.
You can see the dark finish this piece had originally if you look at the top of the blanket chest.
One of the selling points of Chalk Paint is that it goes a long way. The instructions always point out that you don’t need to use a primer. And one (or two) coats of paint is enough to cover the piece. I had to use 4 coats of paint. Believe me, if I had known, I would have primed the piece first. At $36.95 for a small can of paint, 4 coats of paint is pricey.
I was frustrated. A small project that I thought would take a short amount of time took much longer than expected. I’m still not entirely happy with it.
I don’t get what the big deal is about Chalk Paint. Has it been overhyped? It’s awfully expensive. If I thought it was worth the effort, I’d rather make my own. There are plenty of recipes for it on the internet. But is it worth the effort?
And I wonder – why not just use regular old paint like I normally do? Why go to all the expense of chalk paint if I can use flat latex and some wax and come up with this?
It isn’t a great photo, but this is a $5 cabinet that I painted and aged and waxed. For the price of some latex paint and some paste wax (which I still have) this ends up being much more affordable.
I don’t know about you, but if I’m spending $36.95 on a quart of paint, it had better be fabulous.
So far? Not fabulous.
I know that some of my readers use chalk paint and love it, so maybe I’m missing something? Or doing something wrong? If I am, please let me know! I’ll be happy to adjust my current attitude.
By the way, has anyone else received a Malware warning while on PicMonkey? This morning I was editing a photo and was about to save it to my computer when I got a big old Malware warning (I was on Chrome.) I quickly closed that window and ended up editing in Ribbet. I wonder sometimes if these warnings are real or are the result of an overactive and extra vigilant browser. So now I’m running my virus software to make sure everything is okay. Edited to add: Saw this explanation today. PicMonkey and other sites must have been advertising partners with this site. All is okay now.
And my wireless router appears to be acting up.
Happy Monday.
