Spray Painted Chalk Painted Distressed Furniture...Mishaps and Victories

Yes, the title is long and confusing.  Keep reading, you'll understand! 

In getting started in crafting and DIY, I've had many moments of frustration, self doubt, and downright being mad as all heckfire that I can't do anything right.  I sometimes feel like everyone else in blog land knows how to do everything right, the first time, perfectly.  I slowly came to the realization that this is not the truth.  But still, one of my goals of my blog is to show you all the ways I've messed up.  I want you to see the good, the bad and the ugly so that you won't get frustrated at your bad and ugly and so that you can celebrate your good! 

This is DEFINITELY one of those posts!  I am just getting started with furniture painting.  I don't even suggest that you'll learn anything from my post.  The only thing I want you to take away is the knowledge that if you're just starting out too...IT'S OK!!!  You'll get it - eventually!!  That and maybe learn a little bit from my mistakes!  With that said...laugh away at my idiocy!!

I've become obsessed with furniture painting. It all started with a piece that I have in my entry hall. It is a hand me down from my husband's family. They've had it a while. It is perfect for holding keys and junk (and believe me, a lot of "junk" ends up in there) but look at it - there isn't even a handle to open that top shelf!!

So I decided I wanted to spray paint it.  I started with primer.  All was going well.  I got two cans of the color I wanted - a kind of cranberry color. Not even close to enough - but more on that later. Let me tell you, it was tough spraying inside those interior shelves!  It would spray back in my face!!  Yuck!  I would blow my nose and...cranberry!  TMI?  Sorry!

But I kept at it.  It took me a long time due to weather, life, and a few mishaps that included me getting the wrong color paint when I realized that two cans wasn't nearly enough! 

Note to self...and my readers...write the color down BEFORE going to the store.  Or...take a picture on your cell phone in case you end up at a store for other things but the store happens to have spray paint so you decide to go ahead and get some since you're there but you hadn't planned on it and so you aren't exactly sure what color you need.

I finally got it all painted.  I always knew I wanted to distress it so I grabbed some of my very handy hubby's sandpaper and started rubbing away.  I had read a lot about it and had somewhat of an idea on how to do it.  However, what I did NOT realize, was that once I sanded away the spray paint, what was left was white primer.  So I'd try to sand through the primer to the wood...and would get some wood, but also some white primer surrounding the edges.

Note to self...and my readers...DO NOT spray paint white if you're going to distress and don't want white to show through.  Probably a DUH for most...not for me.

I was SO frustrated!  My husband thought it looked okay...I DID NOT. 

By this time it had been a couple of months a while and I had discovered the new phenomenon of Annie Sloan's chalk paint and was OBSESSED with painting something with it.  However, I had already spent a small fortune in spray paint by this point, not to mention all the time AND the fact that we'd been without our entry hall piece for a couple of months a while.  While reading up on the chalk paint I found this post from No Minimalist Here about making your own!

I tried it with the Plaster of Paris...guess what?  It worked great!  It went on smoothly.  I didn't do any sanding except for the edges where I wanted to sand off the white primer to avoid the problem I originally had.  Best yet, I got to pick the exact color I wanted instead of having to settle for the spray paint color which wasn't exactly what I originally wanted.  It was easy to distress and turned out just beautifully! 

I waxed it with Min Wax, added a handle, and put it back in the entry hall.  Between the garage and my hallway there is NO good lighting and I couldn't ever get a great picture of the whole thing so I'm posting several pictures that highlight different parts of it.

I think it turned out so pretty!  I wish I had better pictures.  Maybe I'll try to take some more.  Anyway, I hope you learned something and got some ideas on what you'd like to do with your own furniture projects!  And let me know if you do any of the make your own chalk paint and how it worked out for you!!

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