DIY project: Coffee table painted with turquoise chalk paint, finished with brown wax
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One of my many creative ventures includes purchasing cheap furniture from yard sales and refinishing them with chalk paint to create unique, custom pieces for my home. I’ve had great success with the Americana Decor Chalky Finish Paint. With this paint, you don’t need to prep your piece by sanding or priming — you just dive right in and slap some paint on! The paint also cleans up easily with soap and water, which is great as I am quite vigorous when I paint and splatters tend to happen. The Americana Decor Chalky Finish Paint is also substantially cheaper than the Annie Sloan brand, and can be purchased at Amazon or Home Depot.
The American Decor Chalky Finish Paint also touts a benefit of “1-coat coverage,” but I find pieces that are already varnished will take 1.5 to 2 coats of paint to cover. One coat was simply not enough to mask the dark green paint on this table. I used up about three-quarters of an 8 oz. jar to paint this coffee table.
Here are the materials I used and steps I performed to transform this coffee table:
DecoArt Americana Decor Chalky Finish Pain in Treasure
“Treasure” is quite a bright color. I chose it as a complementary color to some orange accents I already had in my living room.
DecoArt Americana Decor Creme Wax in Deep Brown
The brown wax from Americana Decor is a great way to tone down bright colors and add rustic textures.
Rust-Oleum Spray Paint in Anodized Bronze
I had this on hand from another project. I had hoped that the spray paint was more metallic in texture, but this paint is basically a dark brown. I used this on the drawer knob for contrast. In the end it matches well with the brown wax varnish.
Wooster Shortcut Angle Sash 2-inc Paintbrush
I love this short, flexible-handled brush for painting furniture because of how comfortably it fits in my hand. As I’m painting a piece, I don’t worry about perfectly straight brush strokes — I apply the paint quickly and with varied angled strokes. I think being able to see brush strokes in a painted piece gives it character.
Professional Chalk Paint Wax Brush
This is the brush I use to apply brown wax when I’m looking for lots of texture. Alternatively, you can use a lint-free cloth to apply the wax. With the latter approach you will see less texture, but the brown wax will still accentuate the brush strokes in the underlying paint.
Here’s a photo of the texture I achieved by applying brown wax with a brush. If that’s too much texture for your taste, try the lint-free cloth method.
Now the coffee table serves as a lovely accent piece to my living room. Let me know what you think! Have you used the Americana Decor Chalky Finish paint and how do you like it?