Lynn's Chalk Paint® Table

I’m sure that by now most of you have heard of Annie Sloan’s Chalk Paint®. Today Lynn Brehm shares some tips she picked up while using chalk paint, when she painted and stenciled this table for The Design Cottage in Tacoma, WA.

After painting this table with Chalk Paint®, Lynn embellished the top with handwriting and a stenciled Rooster from her own Natural Accents line of stencils. She transferred her script using graphite paper, then went over it with a 6B graphite sketching pencil. She recommends spraying with Krylon Fixatif prior to waxing, to prevent smearing.

Read on for Lynn’s tips for using Chalk Paint®…

Chalk Paint® Tips

by Lynn Brehm

I don’t know if you have tried the Annie Sloan Chalk Paint® yet, but it is pretty cool. You can paint over most surfaces without priming, including plastic and metal, do two coats for coverage, then sand with 220 to get a really nice finish. I used 150 to do the distressed areas. It does load up your sandpaper so you go thru a lot, and I wouldn’t sand inside — it makes a lot of dust (“chalk” dust is where it gets it’s name). Then you can simply rub on or brush on a coat of wax to seal. There is clear wax or a tinted wax. We have found that doing a coat of the clear wax first, keeps the finish color true when you do a coat of dark wax to age. If you just do the dark wax over the paint, it will darken the entire color somewhat.

If you do try it, here are some tips:

Make sure you stir/shake/mix the paint up really well before painting anything.
You don’t put ASCP on nicely… you slap it on pretty thick (watch for drips) and don’t work back into it too much.
It dries pretty fast.
Check a small hidden section somewhere to see about the “adhesion”. When it dries (about 3 hours) you shouldn’t be able to scratch off the paint with you fingernail. If it does come off, see below.
There may be a sealer on the wood — such as we found out with the shellac— that repels the paint. You would then need to sand pretty well (break surface tension) and rub down with denatured alcohol.
Be careful of mahogany, we found it bled thru the paint. Best to do a primer such as BINS first.
Use 220 paper for general sanding — be prepared for A LOT of dust — and you will need plenty of paper as it loads up really easily.
Much easier to sand than regular latex paint for those who like the distressed look.
Layering colors is easy and you simply sand off the top color to reveal what’s underneath.
The wax comes clear and tinted. You can mix the two together to get a lighter antique. I started with one coat of clear and then added two additional coats of tinted, leaving some in the “creases”. Just be sure to let the wax dry and cure thoroughly between coats. Just like a faux finish, you will “pick up” the bottom layer if you try to go over too soon.