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

Antique Medicine Cabinet

It's been almost a month since my last post.  I promise I have a lot to share, as I have been busy with lots of fun projects!  This might just be my longest post yet, but one things for sure, it has tons of pictures and everyone likes pics, right?  :)  I've been on an "organizing my house" kick lately and have been on the hunt for a storage cabinet for our master bathroom.  I wanted something that made it easy to access things at eye level.  I was going to ask hubby to build me something, but until I start painting some of the pieces he's already built for us (namely the kitchen banquette), I knew I was on my own on this one!

My side of the counter always seems to get cluttered the fastest, due to our lack of storage.  I mean, the linen closet is great and the builder grade cabinets are nice for bigger things, but they're not close at hand for those everyday items.  A girl can never have enough storage, you know.  :)  I decided to visit a local Antique Mall a few weeks ago, we have a lot of them around here.  I'd been there almost an hour browsing through all the booths and was about to walk out when this caught my eye...

It's solid wood and I could tell it was a DIY build from many, many years ago.  The wood grains were gorgeous and the doors were one solid piece with the centers cut out and rounded edges.  It was a great buy at $14.95!  After I removed the doors and sanded the entire piece, I decided to paint it an off white to coordinate with the rest of the room.  

 I just love the old hinges, I left them as is...

After sanding, almost ready to paint...

To my surprise, it took FOUR cans of Krylon's Ivory (in satin) to cover this piece.  The wood was very dark and the grains in the wood were so distinct.  Since it was an old piece, I decided that full coverage wasn't necessary, as I liked all the imperfections that came out when it was painted.

I had a visit from a friendly honey bee... exploring the nooks and crannies of the interior.  

 

The doors had thick mirrors in the center and I had the perfect idea to change the look.  There was no need for more mirrors, so I decided to take the table cloth fabric that I used to upholster the vanity stool  (also used in the Sea Salt Sunroom) and use it to cover the cabinet doors.  

I used the mirrors as a template, traced and cut them to size.
Then, using spray adhesive, I adhered them to the mirrors.  

 Fabric adhered to mirrors (above)

I wasn't sure I'd be able to reuse the old hinges, having to remove them several times during the process, thankfully they were salvageable!  Before, they blended in with the dark wood, now you can see how they pop and really give the piece more character!    

Hobby Lobby just so happened to have their knobs 1/2 off that week, so I grabbed two gorgeous gray-blue glass knobs.  They're the perfect finishing touch; I love how they look against the off white. 

Hubby and I hung some things last weekend and now the medicine cabinet makes it's home on the bathroom wall between the two mirrors.  I decided to relocate the Goodwill clock I refurbished above the cabinet to add height to the space.  I think it turned out great and I'm so excited to have easy access to my everyday items.

I love my garage sale find vanity tray for $3!

I've had this ceramic hand mirror since I was a little girl, it's a favorite of mine.

So now you finally get to see the other side of the master bathroom.  You can go here to read about our bathroom renovation.  After the pros were finished, we painted the walls in Sherwin Williams Austere Gray, installed new light fixtures, hung mirrors and a few framed pieces.  The final touch was the clock and refurbished antique cabinet. 

 Before...

After

Eventually, we'd like to paint the cabinets, but for now, we're happy!  

Stay tuned, as I share with you my FIRST furniture re-do using homemade chalk paint!

Here's a sneak peek...

I went to my local Anthropologie (they just opened in early September) and purchased these adorable knobs for $2.95 each, normally $10 dollars each!

Lisa @ A Vintage Vine assisted with this project!
I'll be back soon... I'm excited to show you!

I'm linking up to: