Painting With Your Own Chalk Style Paint

Last year I painted a small end table Duck Egg Blue with Annie Sloan’s Chalk Paint.  Here’s the post.    I liked the way it turned out, but I’m now painting my bedroom a new color.  Since the bedroom is now Sherwin Williams Aqua Sphere Blue, it clashes with the Duck Egg Blue table.   My aqua and my duck are not getting along!  Here’s the table…

Duck Egg Annie Sloan Table 3

Annie Sloan’s chalkpaint product is wonderful, but I didn’t want to drive a long distance to get it or pay the $30-$40, so I started looking for recipes to make a chalk-style paint. There are several…some use Plaster of Paris, some baking soda, some grout, and some a powdered form of what makes up Tums! I went the Tums route which means that I used powdered Calcium Carbonate. It was $4. I also needed a white latex paint, and since I didn’t have any at the house, I bought one of the Valspar paint pots for about $3.  Perfect for a small job such as mine.

Calcium Carbonate

The recipe is simple. Two parts paint to one part Calcium Carbonate, and since the paint pot is 8 oz., I just added 4 oz of Calcium Carbonate. Here’s my paint brew.  Unlike some of the other recipes, I learned that this mix stores well.   One most important tip…please make sure you have something to stir the mix with. I could not find anything and had to go out and cut a tree limb. I was channeling Paul Bunyon.   The consistency of the mix is not as smooth as normal paint.

Brew with stem

I brushed the mixture on the table and drawer and let them dry overnight.

White Table Not Chipped

When I first asked Mike to “distress” a piece of furniture he almost fainted. He could not imagine. In his eyes, you must “refinish” instead of distress. He’s come along.    

Table Almost finished

He used sandpaper to rub the white off and allow the blue to show through.  After that he rubbed a clear paste wax on the table.  However, you can use any wax including car wax.   Whatever floats your boat.     The wax gives the dull chalk finish a nice sheen and smoothness to the touch.    In the picture below, the table is almost through.

White End Table

And done!

Bedroom 1

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2 thoughts on “Painting With Your Own Chalk Style Paint

  1. judydee

    Looks good! Thanks for the tip on make your own. I’ve wanted to try chalk paint, but couldn’t justify the retail cost for a chest that I picked up on the side of the road.

    1. Eva Post author

      Judy…it really does work just as well. The only thing is finding that Calcium Carbonate. It’s in health food stores or online and that’s about it. I almost bought some tums and started crushing them!! LOL! There are lots of videos that are on You Tube that tell more about how to do it. The thing I really like about this vs. buying (other than saving money) is that you aren’t limited to just the colors that Annie Sloan or Miss Mustard Seed or any of the others have. You can choose ANY paint color and mix in the Calcium Carbonate.

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