How To Give Old Furniture A New Look With Chalk Style Paint

I do not like to paint furniture.  And frankly, I tend to not even like most painted furniture.  It drives me crazy when someone takes a beautiful antique and paints it.   But I had this old hutch in my dining room that's been bothering me for years.  I felt something had to be done about it.  It wasn't an antique.  It was a poorly made piece of junk I picked up at Goodwill for $10.00.  It's only redeeming value was that it had curved glass.

                          BEFORE                            AFTER

I wanted to paint this piece of furniture for two reasons:  1) It was already painted a high gloss dark brown and I didn't like the way it looked, and 2) Every piece of furniture in this room was also brown and I really wanted at least one piece of furniture in the room that was not brown.  I did not want to paint the table and chairs (way too much work), the other china hutch is an antique in perfect condition, that leaves the piano and the grandfather clock, neither of which I would ever be stupid enough to paint.

I've seen a lot of successful before and after furniture make overs using chalk paint, so that's what I decided to try.  Following the instructions, I first sanded my hutch so the paint would adhere better.  I used an electric sander but I made the mistake of having the wrong sandpaper loaded and I gouged the wood.  It didn't really matter, as paint covers a multitude of sins and I was going for the distressed look anyway, but as a caution to my readers:  use fine sanding paper!

I sanded outside on my back porch so I wouldn't get the dust inside my house.  It was a warm winter day (for us Wisconites anyway!).

Next, I put on one coat of primer followed by two coats of chalk style paint.  The instructions said only one was necessary but I could still see brush strokes after only one coat, so I added a second coat.  However, I should have only used one because it shows the distressing better. You want to see a little bit of the color underneath.  I ended up covering all the old color with chalk style paint.  They do sell decorative glazes to go with their chalk style paint.  If I had to do it all over again, I'd use the "Smoked Glaze" Topcoat, to add a little more interest to the piece.

The next day, after the paint was completely dry, I used FINE sanding paper (see, I learn my lessons) and I sanded the edges, hinges, and handle.  My husband thought I should have distressed it a bit more, but it's a very elegant room that the hutch is in, so I didn't want to overdue it.  Just like my jeans, I like them slightly distressed, not with huge gaping holes and rips.  😊

When I was done sanding, I vacuumed up all the chalk dust then I wiped it clean with a damp cloth and let it dry.  The last step was to add two coats of top coat, which is basically a matte wax to protect the chalk style paint.

The inside of the hutch was already painted white so I didn't have to do anything with that.  I loaded the hutch with my vintage peach lustre ware as I thought it would be so pretty for spring.

Since the walls are ultra white, I painted the hutch "Aged Grey" so it would stand out from the wall a little.  It turned out a little lighter than the paint card.  I wish I would have chosen "Country Grey", as it's a little bit darker.  However, I LOVE the way it turned out.  I love that I finally have one piece of furniture in this room that isn't brown.  And, I think the chalk style paint really suits this piece of furniture much better than the high gloss paint job it previously had.  Now I'm tempted to tackle my table (at least the top as it's all scratched up anyway).  What do you think?

In the picture below you can get a better idea of the distressing.  It was super easy to distress as it's "Chalk" paint.  When I was done sanding, the table top and my hands were covered in chalk dust.  It reminded me of my childhood school days when I had to clean the erasers (yes, I'm that old!).

There are many varieties of chalk style paint on the market.  I used the Rust-Oleum brand.  I bought a quart, which was way too much.  I think I only used 1/8 of what was in the can.  These are the two products I used:

I am absolutely thrilled with my "new" piece of furniture that only cost me $20.00 to update.  I already had a brush, sanding paper, and primer so I did not count that in the refinishing cost.

So what about you?  Do you like chalk painted furniture?  Have you ever painted furniture before?  I'd love to hear from you!

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