Chalk Paint Transformation!

Hi all!  I haven't been blogging as usual as it was a hectic May.  I have to say it is a new challenge to parent a very mobile almost 11 month old and a 3 year old at home this summer!  They are both into everything, and one wants to eat everything he finds, be that carpet fuzz or bobbie pins!

So, I have this table with 6 chairs I got of Craigslist for $250 back when we were staging the old house.  They had this really ugly and cheap looking stain that had rubbed off leaving yellow streaks.  I thought they would be perfect to try out the much lauded Annie Sloan's Chalk Paint.

Here are the chairs after 2 coats of pure white and a little bit of distressing.

Now, I wasn't sure what I wanted to do for my table.  I have white dishes, so I wanted a contrasting color.  Ideally I wanted yellow, but since the yellow from Annie Sloan is more creamy than I wanted, I thought about blue.  But, since the ways are already the color blue I would have picked, I knew it would be too much.

That is when I went to Michella Marie's store in Old Town Spring and she showed me what pure white looked like with dark wax applied directly to the paint.  I thought it could create the perfect wood grain look.

Here is the table with just the white wash on one side.

I painted on a dab of white paint the misted with a spray bottle to thin it out and just washed it on.  The paint is amazing and you can really "work" it and get it to go what you want.  Much more like an artist with a canvas than I thought it would be!

Here is the dark wax going on the left side.  (for great wax tips, check out Perfectly Imperfect's blog for video tutorials and Q&A) You apply a tiny amount, really press it in, then immediately wipe up the excess.  It is like a stain and wax in one, so it DRAMATICALLY changes the color!

Here are the leaves with just a wash and the first section in the background waxed with the dark wax.

The finished leaf!

Here is the finished product before the final coat of clear wax to protect everything!

I love the way the wash and dark stain turned out, and I really loved how fun it was.  I am looking around wanting to paint everything with chalk paint now!

Ta da!

Oh, and the wash and wax took about 2 hours start to finish last night, and that was with the test panel and waiting for it to dry between coats.  It was so fast!!