Homemade Chalk Paint Dresser

I did it!  I FINALLY painted something with chalk paint!  I've been dying to try it, but could never bring myself to spend the money.  My friend and fellow blogger Lisa @ A Vintage Vine told me there was a formula for making your own!  What?  Seriously?  I didn't waste any time and let me just say, the results were AMAZING!
Here is the dresser I chose to refinish:

I purchased this dresser at Kirklands several years ago. It's held up great, however, we have a lot of dark furniture in our home... this piece was the perfect candidate for a change!

There are several different ways you can make homemade chalk paint.  You can go to Lisa's post here to get the ingredients.  For this dresser, we decided to mix 2 tablespoons of plaster of Paris with one cup flat latex paint.  When making your own, you can mix any color you want!  My color choice was Dolphin Fin by Behr, a very light gray.  It's important to store your paint in an air tight container.  I used a Ball jar.  Your paint will be very thick, especially after it sits for awhile.  Adding water can decrease the thickness, but only add one tsp. at a time.

I applied the chalk paint with a cabinet nap foam roller.  For the hard to reach areas, I used the end of the roller to dab my paint into the corners.  At first, I thought I wanted full coverage, as I do not have many distressed pieces in my home.  I LOVE the look of distressing, but could I pull off the look?  

After the first coat dried, I lightly sanded to smooth out the rough texture caused by the Plaster of Paris.  I started seeing the wood coming through and knew I had to distress!

After lots of sanding and distressing, the piece was amazingly smooth.  To seal and protect, I used a Minwax Cabinet Paste in Natural.  The waxing gives your paint color a slightly darker tone and really brings out the distressed areas.
I am beyond thrilled with the results!

Before...

And after!

Remember those Anthropologie knobs I mentioned in my recent post?  Swoon!  

This was my very first furniture re-do and certainly not my last.  I really enjoyed this project and cannot thank Lisa enough for her help and guidance!  

I'm linking up to:

Fridays at Remodelaholic
Primitive and Proper - Piece of Work Wednesday - Furniture Link Party
Miss Mustard Seed's Furniture Feature Friday
Thrifty Thursdays @ Tales From Bloggeritaville
Nifty Thrifty Tuesday @ Coastal Charm
Days of Chalk and Chocolate