Before yet another month slips away from me, I wanted to share this quick post about a recent DIY project. Over the New Year's weekend, I decided to give a makeover to an old cedar chest I'd acquired several years ago. While the inside of it is obviously cedar, it had laminate (I think) on the outside which was looking pretty rough. And the overall color isn't exactly our style. Oh, and one of our dogs had chewed on a corner of it a long time ago. Yikes.
All I did to prep the chest before painting was give it a quick wipe-down to remove any dust. Yep, that's all. One of the many reasons to love chalk paint. I guess I did also have to tape off the back side and the underside of the lid, which took some extra time.
Then, I thinned the paint with a little bit of water (helps with smoother coverage) and started brushing it on. I decided to do random brush strokes everywhere rather than trying to paint in straight lines, thinking it might add a little "crosshatch" texture to the piece once done. You can't really mess this stuff up either way. (Another reason to love chalk paint!)
It ended up taking three coats of the Graphite paint to attain sufficient coverage, which is about what I had expected. Once the final coat was dry, I applied the clear wax to it. Then a day later, I buffed it with a clean, dry cloth to give it a buttery soft sheen.
And, voila! Weekend project finished. We moved the chest from our office upstairs into our basement, and it's used for storing board games and other miscellaneous items. I have to say it looks sooo much better in this graphite color! And bonus, chewed-up corner is hardly noticeable now. Another chalk paint win in the books, folks.
