Chalk paint is massively popular these days, allowing you to give an old piece of furniture a new lease on life and turn it into a vintage masterpiece! Although there are many great chalk paint brands out there, some people like to try making their own. Let’s have a look at two of the most popular recipes in more detail.
The Plaster Of Paris Recipe
Ingredients
3 Parts Latex Paint (Choose your color)
1 Part Plaster of Paris (+ Water to mix)
Extremely popular online, this recipe is very simple and produces great results. The one thing to bear in mind though, is that plaster of Paris is white and will therefore lighten your final color. So it’s best to experiment a bit before you mix all your ingredients.
To make the paint simply mix the plaster of Paris with some water until you have a smooth paste. When well mixed, you can add it to the paint, and mix it all together well. When the mixture is ready, you should have a smooth and silky paint that looks very similar to store-bought chalk paint.
Like branded paint, this will be ready to recoat or sand in 24-hours, and you can sand it just as you would with a professional paint.
The Calcium Carbonate Recipe
Ingredients
2 Parts Paint
1 Part Calcium Carbonate
Calcium carbonate is the chemical name for chalk, so it’s no surprise that this is a good recipe! Mix the two ingredients together really well (you don’t want any lumps), and then you can apply it just as you would with regular chalk paint.
The finish is beautifully smooth and chalky, and looks extremely professional. One downside to this approach is that it can be a bit messy to mix the ingredients, but if you take your time you should be ok. The other thing to consider is that calcium carbonate powder (which is the form you’ll need) isn’t the easiest stuff to get a hold of these days. You might need to have a word with your local chemist.
Still, all things considered this is a great alternative and produces lovely results.
Why use chalk paint?
You’ve heard about it only, but why should you use chalk paint at all? This trend has grown massively popular in recent years, in part because of many youtubers and other social media influencers promoting design ideas. But chalk paint is a traditional finish that has been popular for years.
Firstly, this paint has a thickness and texture to it that is much heavier than normal paint. This means it fills grain in wood, and smooths over holes and imperfections in the surface. This has always made it very popular as a way to improve the look of surfaces – as you can transform a rough and chipped surface into a smooth and uniform one in just a coat of paint.
Chalk paint is extremely easy to handle and apply, and that has certainly helped it’s popularity. Due to its thick consistency, the paint doesn’t often need primers or undercoats, and you rarely need to prepare the surface in any way before using it. This makes it a great “one-and-done” approach for quick DIY projects.
Finally, you can actually adapt the chalk paint finish in many ways to get exactly the look you want. Some people will sand and distress it to get a more vintage look. Others will wax it or apply a lacquer to give you a shinier satin finish, which looks much more contemporary.
All in all, this robust paint just gives you a lot of options, and is very simple and cost-effective to use. You can take an old piece of furniture and have it looking as good as new in just one coat of paint. It’s pretty close to magic!
