Chalk paint is one of my absolute favorite products for furniture makeovers, because it is forgiving, it sticks to almost any surface, and it hides the fact that you skipped sanding. I have used it on old laminate pieces and on beat up things from garage sales, and you would never know how they started out. Annie Sloan and C. Lynn Harrison make gorgeous premixed colors, and I keep Websters Chalk Paint Powder in the garage so I can mix my own shade out of paint I already own. My homemade version uses tile grout, which sounds strange and works beautifully. Buy the creme wax too, brush on or rub on, because sealing is the step everybody skips and regrets. Here are dressers, chairs, a cabinet, a hutch, a pie safe, a crib and even a front door to get you started.
1. Chalk Painted Nightstand Makeover
A battered nightstand goes navy with two coats and no stripping, which is the whole argument for chalk paint in one small piece of furniture. The reason it works on a cheap nightstand is the same reason it works on laminate: the paint grips a slick factory finish that regular latex would peel straight off. Brass drawer pulls added at the end do more for the look than the color does. Start here if you have never painted furniture before, because a nightstand is small enough to finish in an afternoon.
Get the full tutorial at DIY Joy.
2. Weathered Grey Cabinet
An 80s cabinet with huge hardware and raised molded panels gets rescued out of a thrift store and turned genuinely pretty. The order of work is what makes the weathered finish: a base coat of light grey homemade chalky paint, then dry brushing, then a thin white wash pulled over the top so the molding details pop instead of disappearing. The original hardware got a few coats of white rather than being replaced, and the whole thing was sealed with wax. Dents were filled first, which is a five minute job people skip.
Get the full tutorial at Anastasia Vintage.
3. Chalk Finish Paint Dresser
Two colors, one dresser, and a very useful ratio. The whole piece gets one coat of chalk finish paint, then once the drawer fronts have dried a contrasting color goes on with a light brushstroke so the base color still shows through. To mix your own for this size job, stir a third of a cup of plaster of Paris and a third of a cup of water into a cup of paint. Because chalk finish paint dries fast, work quickly and pick any stray bits out while it is still wet.
Get the full tutorial at Lowe's.
4. Annie Sloan Chalk Painted Bed
Two coats of Napoleonic Blue, one coat of clear wax, one coat of dark wax, on a solid wood bed found at a garage sale for thirty dollars. The honest lesson attached to it is worth more than the color: the maker’s first attempt was a laminate bed and the paint chipped off in sheets, because laminate needs a light sanding or a coat of shellac first. Chalk paint is forgiving, not magic. Test a hidden spot before you commit to a whole bed frame.
Get the full tutorial at The Lilypad Cottage.
5. Mid Century Modern Chairs
The clever part here is that the seat pads are dyed with chalk paint rather than recovered. Strip the old velvet, add polyester wadding and fire retardant calico, staple on plain cotton, then mask off the section you want colored. Thin the paint to roughly one part paint to ten parts water and brush washes into the weave until the color is as strong as you want it. Too thick in one go and it dries with a crust. The frames go graphite, the wood panel stays bare and oiled.
Get the full tutorial at Annie Sloan.
6. Round Wooden Center Table
A twenty dollar garage sale table, no sanding, no priming, straight to paint. The two tips worth taking from this one are about restraint: distress with a hand sanding block rather than a power sander, because a sander takes off far too much far too fast, and only distress the edges and outer corners where a piece would naturally wear. Then seal it, always, with either a wax or a polyurethane. A dark paste wax rubbed on in circles is what makes the sanded spots read as age instead of damage.
Get the full tutorial at Jennifer Decorates.
7. Peacock Blue Antique Dresser
Florence and Napoleonic Blue mixed half and half, and here is the good part: the maker deliberately did not stir it all the way, so the brush pulled the two colors together into a marbled peacock as she worked. Once that dried, more Florence went on watered down as a wash over the top. The ornate carving was left mostly alone, with 220 grit used only where the veneer was already chipping, then a heavy dark wax and clear wax mix as the top coat.
Get the full tutorial at Knot Too Shabby Furnishings.
8. Grey Washed Chalk Paint Dresser
Two mismatched dressers that have been in a family bedroom since the nineties, painted two coats each so they finally read as a pair. The wash goes on top of the base color: thin the paint, brush it over the drawers, and wipe back before it sets, which softens everything and lets the grain show. The pop of purple was a surprise for a mother who loves color, and it makes the point that a wash lets you use a bold shade without the room shouting.
Get the full tutorial at The Inspired Hive.
9. Frenchy Hutch
A seventy five dollar hutch that sat in a garage for six months because its owner could not decide, finished at last in Old White and Coco, two colors that read as French without trying too hard. The tip hiding in this one is structural: pop the back panel off the hutch with a rubber mallet before you start. Painting the inside of a hutch around a fixed back is miserable, and taking it off also lets you paper or paint the back in a contrasting finish.
Get the full tutorial at The Shabbiest Chick.
10. Chalk Paint Farmhouse Coffee Table
Only the base gets painted here, and the stained top stays exactly as it was, which is the fastest farmhouse look going. Three coats of Old White with a touch of Pure White stirred in, distressed at random with extra attention to the edges, then one coat of clear wax buffed to a slight sheen. Vacuum the sanding dust off with the hand held attachment before you wax, because wax picks up every speck you leave behind and you cannot get it out afterward.
Get the full tutorial at Our Southern Home.
11. Chalk Painted Coffee and Side Table
Two playroom tables painted to match in two coats of a chalk based paint in a soft pebble grey, sanded first only because one of them already carried a chippy finish that would have shown through. This is the least dramatic makeover on the list and quietly the most useful one, because a matching coffee table and side table make a room look considered in a way that a single spectacular piece never does. Same color, same wax, one weekend.
Get the full tutorial at Maison de Pax.
12. Purple and Mint Chalkpaint Drawers
A dollar. That is what this whole dresser makeover cost, because the purple and the mint both came out of the oops section at Home Depot and then went into a homemade chalk paint. The hardware came off, the piece got a light sanding and a wipe down, and two coats of each color went on section by section. A clear wax over the top, and the original pulls went straight back on because they were worth keeping. The maker’s advice if you are nervous: start on something smaller than a dresser.
Get the full tutorial at Clever Pink Pirate.
13. Chalk Painted Green Headboard and Bed Frame
Picked up off the side of the road, repaired and then painted a green nobody would dare buy. This four poster bed got the repair work that most trash to treasure posts skip: chipped and fractured sections of the frame got fixed first, and a broken piece of ornament in the middle of the headboard was reshaped with a jigsaw rather than left ragged. Then the chalk paint went on, and the maker’s point is that the paint is so forgiving that almost anyone can get a good result.
Get the full tutorial at The Heathered Nest.
14. Paris Gray Chalk Paint Headboard
Green velvet, flea market, tufted and smelling bad, so it got painted rather than reupholstered. The frame is Paris Gray and the upholstery itself is Pure White, thinned one part paint to one part water, sealed with clear soft wax. The maker’s own caveat is worth repeating: she would not always recommend chalk paint on fabric, and it does work. Clean the upholstery before you paint it. Velvet takes it surprisingly well, and the wax is what stops the finish feeling chalky to the touch.
Get the full tutorial at Sincerely, Sara D.
15. Chalk Paint Front Door
Salvaged from a contractor’s supply store, with its ugly textured plexiglass swapped for clear glass, then painted with a two color distressed method learned at a paint workshop. Paris Grey and Duck Egg Blue together make the soft turquoise you see, and the pediment above the door was painted the same way so the whole entrance reads as one piece. A front door is the highest impact paint job in the house and takes the least paint of anything here.
Get the full tutorial at European Farmhouse Charm.
16. Chalk Painted Pie Safe
A seven foot handmade pie safe, found under years of dust in the back of an antique store, painted a deep blue. Two details matter on a piece like this. The crusty old chicken wire in the top doors was carefully clipped out and replaced, and the original hardware was saved and cleaned rather than swapped. It is handmade, so the drawers are not interchangeable: take one out and put it back in the same opening or it will not go.
Get the full tutorial at Happily Ever After, Etc.
17. Chalk Paint Gray Crib
Teething bite marks along every rail, and a soft grey mixed on the spot to cover them: one part Old White to six parts French Linen, because straight French Linen was too dark for a nursery. Mixing your own shade from two pots you already own is the single most useful habit in chalk painting and it costs nothing. Check your crib’s manufacturer guidance and use a nursery safe topcoat, because this is one piece that will be chewed.
Get the full tutorial at The Turquoise Home.
