Dining Room Do Over

Today I’m teaming up with some pretty talented bloggers to share with you a few of our chalk paint creations.  14 of us bloggers teamed up with Wise Owl Chalk Synthesis Paint for our projects today.  This was my first time using chalk paint and I’m quite impressed.  I was a bit nervous as I’m a latex paint kind of gal but with some great tips from my friend, Amy (chalk paint guru) from Canary Street Crafts I felt more confident in my abilities to use chalk paint.  Frankly, it’s really not that hard.  It’s actually quite easy.

If you haven’t known this about me already I’m a huge fan of Craigslist.  I love to find cheap items on there and fix them up.  What’s even better than cheap?!  FREE!  This beauty of a table my husband and I snagged up on Craigslist one Sunday afternoon.  When we moved into our house we only had a kitchen table so the dining room was our daughter’s playroom for the first 6 months or so.  We decided to move her toys down to the basement and start our transformation of actually having a dining room.  Now, most people would have left this table for scrap but we loved it.  It was pretty scratched up but we saw potential.  The previous owners had this in their laundry room and used it to do projects and fold laundry.

As you can see it’s a little beat up and so was the rest of our furniture for the dining room.  We were lucky enough to have been given these gorgeous Restoration Hardware chairs for free from a family friend.  They were a little worn but nothing a little spray paint can’t fix.  You can see how I fixed them up here.  I have recently redone those green end chairs and I can’t wait to share the tutorial with you.  I have a lot of favorite projects but the chairs might be on the top of the list!

Before I started painting the base of the table I had to sand down the top of the table to bare wood to remove all of the scratches on the top.  I then stained the top of the table with Java Gel to give it a rich dark brown color.  I also have a tutorial in the works for that as well so keep an eye out!

Now it was time to paint the base of the table and I wanted a fun pop of color in the room so I went with a light blue.  I chose the color Joyful.   Here are all their color choices.  I started out by giving the base of the table a good cleaning to make sure that there was no dust or gunk that would prevent the paint for adhering correctly.  I then applied the first coat of paint with a ClingOn brush and it went on very well. Here is how it looked after one coat.

A fun little painting tip I love is to use a shower curtain as your drop cloth when painting.  I buy a few at a time every time I go to Dollar Tree. It’s a cheap and affordable way to protect your flooring and then you can dispose of it after if you want.  I tend to use them a couple times before I throw them away.  I also used a paper plate for the legs as I wanted to make sure no paint would leak on to my rug.  The shower curtains are great but they are also thin.

After the first coat was dry then it was time to apply the second coat!  It had a beautiful finish and it was definitely a pop of color.  I may have needed to choose a not so bright color as it was a little bright for my taste when I was finished with the second coat.  I decided to then do an antiquing wax on the top of the paint to tone down the brightness and it worked great.  

Before you use your antiquing wax you want to make sure to use clear wax first over your chalk paint so that the color isn’t altered when doing the darker wax.  When applying wax (clear and dark) you want to use a bristle brush and apply the wax very lightly to your piece of furniture.  You then want to wipe off the excess wax as it will become tacky and not dry if you don’t do so.  Remember, a little wax goes a long way! 🙂

I love how the table turned out and now it’s your turn to create something beautiful of your own!  Below is a Rafflecopter for a chance to win 1 pint of Wise Owl Paint, 1/2 pint of Wise Owl Paint, choice of Wax and a ClingOn Brush!  All the tools you need to make something of your own!

Now head on over to all of these amazing ladies blogs and check out their amazing projects!  I love to see what everyone else has come up with!

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