Tag Archives: annie-sloan-chalk-paint

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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Annie Sloan Paint Project Day One

Annie Sloan Chalk Paint! I have been reading about it in all the pins, blogs and magazines for several months now, and last week I visited the Annie Sloan website to find a local dealer. I found one in Mendota! LIE! JOKE! We don’t even have a store of any kind in Mendota! However, there is someone who carries Annie Sloan nearby–in Johnson City, Tennessee. It’s called “The Sparrow’s Nest.”

Mendota, Virginia is about 45 miles from Knob Creek Road in Johnson City, Tennessee where the Sparrow’s Nest is located….just long enough to be considered an event!

We didn’t have any problem finding it.   It’s located in an historic old house that was used in the days of the Underground Railroad! If you visit the Sparrow’s Nest, ask to be shown the trap door that was used so many years ago. Shivers!

Sparrows Nest, Johnson City, Tennessee

I went in and quickly picked out the color of paint I wanted. It is a gray blue called “Duck Egg.” I’ll show it to you a bit further down on this post.

However, there were so many treasures at the Sparrow’s Next. Here’s a few…

Sparrow's Next Vignette

And this…

Sparrow's Nest Halloween Vignette

Lorrie Malcolm, the person who sold me the paint, is also an artist.   She both works and sells her things at the Sparrow’s Nest and mentioned that there were several locally made pieces in the shop.    She was working on a “felting” project which will result in a Thanksgiving turkey.  Here’s a picture of what she has completed so far….

Lorrie Malcolm's Felting at the Sparrow's Nest

Here’s another whimsical piece that Lorrie made.  It’s a really good likeness of “the man in the moon!” If I could afford this, I’d take it home. It was reasonably priced, but I’m on a tight budget right now!

Sparrow's Nest Man in the Moon

And this…for me…this was an inspiration piece…an old frame, a bit of burlap and a stencil and I could make this.  Or I could just go back to the Sparrow’s Nest and buy this one!

Sparrow's Nest Thankful Picture

And doesn’t everyone need a pair of these? I’ve got my eye on them. Ha!

Sparrow's Nest Eyeballs

Now..back to why I ended up at the Sparrow’s Nest. I brought the Annie Sloan chalk paint home.

Annie Sloan Duck Egg Paint

As soon as I got home with the paint, I went upstairs into the loft area of our house and came down the stairs grunting carrying an end table.  Mike looked at me as if I had a third eye and asked, “What are you doing?”  I’ve kept him a little in the dark about this project, so I just replied, “Nothing.” He said, “Oh no…not again!”

Here’s the table before I started painting it.  Boring.

End Table Before Picture

This paint is so pretty…

Annie Sloan Duck Egg

My friend, Sue Gardner, is staying with me for a few weeks, and she helped me. Here she is…painting away!

Sue Gardner painting

And here I am with phase I of this project done!   By the way…can you tell I’ve lost a few pounds? I’m on it baby!

Eva Beaule painting

The good thing about this paint is that there is no prep work. I dusted the end table off and started adding paint. Tomorrow morning we’ll add a second coat, and Friday we’ll probably add the wax. Hopefully, this will be beside the  bed in just a few days looking all fancy.

Another wonderful thing from today…our beautiful Clinch Mountain. I could not live where this mountain was not at my back. It’s getting fancy, too, all bright and beautiful for fall…

Thank you for reading RiverCliff Cottage.

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