My first furniture painting experience with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint

So I finally got around to trying out my Annie Sloan Chalk Paint (ASCP).  After reading all about it from Miss Mustard Seed's post and Centsational Girl's Q&A, they had me ready to take the plunge.

I decided I was going to paint our bedroom furniture, which I was never a fan of.  DH picked it out before we moved to MN and had to do it in a hurry and I wasn't around to give my opinion.  I've always wanted to do something to it, but the thought of stripping the furniture and then sanding and painting was never something that sounded fun to me.  Enter ASCP.

Here's the dresser I started with before:

Dresser before

And here are the drawers (Please excuse the messy room):

drawers before

After removing the handles, I simply cleaned off the furniture with a slightly damp rag and let dry.  Then I got down to the mixing.  I wanted a slightly transparent look.  I filled a big plastic cup with a bit of water (didn't measure but I would guess about half a cup of water) and then added some Old White and mixed. It was slightly thinned out.  Then I grabbed my brush (I ordered 3 synthetic brushes with my paint) and got started.  I found the paint to be very easy to work with and not at all too thick.  I did notice brush strokes, so I tried to start and the top and get a clean swoop across the wood.  I was done with the first coat in about an hour, but since this was my first time using it I thought that wasn't too bad.

First coat:

First Coat

first coat on drawers

Not too bad.  I waited about an hour or so for it to dry.  It says you don't have to wait that long, but hey I had some DVR to catch up on and I was being lazy!  I started the second coat and realized how well the first coat really covered!  I didn't need much of a second coat at all.   I let it dry overnight since I wanted to check it out in the daylight for anything I may have missed.  And well yeah--I didn't feel like doing any more that day.

Sunday I inspected my work and got to work with DH's sanding block to distress it in a few places like corners and drawer edges. There have been some questions about distressing before or after waxing. I prefer to do it before so you can get the distressed areas to show up a bit more when you use your wax.  Everyone was right--this stuff sands off into a find powder and looks great!  Then it was time to wax.  I will be honest--this is the part I probably didn't do correctly.  Annie Sloans's wax was a bit steep for my pocketbook so I just used some SC Johnson Paste Wax that was warmed up.  I first applied with a brush and found that made marks.  I then switched to a soft cloth and just rubbed it on in a very light coat.  Let it dry a bit and then buffed it out.  Next time I will probably go for a better wax but for my fist time I think I did the best I could.

Once everything was ready, I put the old handles back on to see how they would look.  I had thought I would buy new ones, but I thought these looked pretty good!  Here are the results---what do you think?

All done!

closeup of drawers

ASCP really lives up to the hype for me.  Hopefully I can get some time this weekend to do the other tall dresser and the nightstand.  DH didn't get the distressed look at all.  Once I was finished he said "How come there is paint missing in some places?"  He couldn't believe that I would WANT it to look like that!!! LOL  Now I have shop around some thrift stores to find an old mirror to hang over it as I hate the mirror it came with.  Super 80's looking and not in a good way.

If anyone else has tried this paint, tell me what you think!  I'd love to know any more tricks or tips to do a better job and if there is a wax I can get locally to use!

Linking at: