Cedar Chest Chalk Paint Makeover

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. 

But all aesthetics aside, this was a nice solid cedar chest which I didn't want to get rid of. Enter my favorite makeover magic — chalk paint! I figured I had nothing to lose by painting it, just like I've done with so many other pieces of furniture and cabinetry in this house. Not wanting to spend much (read: any) money on this project, I rummaged through my existing stash of chalk paint and decided on Annie Sloan Graphite (the same color used on our lower kitchen cabinets). 

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.

And lastly, a couple "before & afters" for the full effect!

Console Table Chalk Paint Makeover - Quick & Easy!

What's a girl to do after she's painted all the things in her house? Start repainting, of course.

This little console table was a $25 thrift find several years ago. When I bought it, it was hunter green with a lighter oak stained top. I repainted it using a white latex paint and gloss finish, along with refinishing the top with a walnut stain. 

Recently I've gotten the itch to change up our entryway wall, so it was the perfect excuse to give this table another facelift. The white's fine and dandy, but I'm just bored with it. And since I've started using chalk paint pretty much exclusively on any cabinets and furniture, I knew this could be a pretty quick project. Mainly because chalk paint requires virtually no prep and dries quickly. So, after wiping the dust off the table, I just painted right over the existing gloss finish.

Normally for larger projects (like our kitchen cabinets and bathroom cabinets) I opt for the more pricey Annie Sloan chalk paint. But for this small table I just used Buttercream brand Teal Lagoon (because I still had about half a bottle after using it to refinish this small cabinet a couple years ago). It took two coats to get good coverage over the white.

Once the paint dried, I wiped on some clear wax since this that's supposed to help the dark wax apply more evenly. Then, I wiped on dark wax in sections, let it sit about 20 seconds, then wiped it off. The dark wax really tones down the bright paint and gives it an antiqued effect. With this Teal Lagoon color in particular, the wax also seems to bring out more green/aqua tone which I prefer.

Voila! Finished in one evening for immediate gratification, and it's just the look I was wanting. The table ties in nicely now with a few other pieces of "distressed aqua" furniture we have. It wouldn't take someone long after walking into our house to realize that this is one of my favorite colors.

Next I'm going to replace the circle medallion mirrors (another DIY project from way back when we had more of those colors in our decor) with three white wall planters that I just bought off Amazon. Stay tuned for the next phase of this little entryway makeover!

Master Bathroom Makeover: Part I (Lots of painting!)

I'm trying to remind myself that I don't always have to wait until finishing a DIY project to blog about it. I mean, let's face it, it's usually weeks or months from beginning to "end." And for my latest project (our master bathroom makeover) that's certainly the case. With that said, here's a progress update!

Back in July, I started painting all the walls. The old color was Tree Branch by Sherwin Williams (don't ask why I chose this color in the first place).

The new color is Colonnade Gray by SW. Bye bye, brown!

Maneuvering the ladder in the toilet room was one of the worst parts. But it doesn't feel like a dark cave in there anymore!

A few weeks after the walls, I worked up the motivation to start painting our vanity. Chalk painting is my go-to method for transforming cabinets without paying for brand new ones (see our kitchen makeover and hall bathroom makeover). This time, however, I got much more adventurous and ambitious with my technique than past projects. What did I have to lose? Anything would be an improvement over the orange-y oak stain.

My initial goal was to achieve some kind of aqua/turquoise color that would complement the walls and existing tile floor (which I'm not a fan of, but definitely not replacing it). After a great deal of experimenting on scrap wood with color mixing, layering and waxing, I finally came up with a winning combination.

• First, I painted on a layer of Annie Sloan Florence. This color is bold and beautiful. I want to use it again someday for a smaller accent piece, but for this vanity it made a good base color.
• For the second layer, I mixed together French Linen and Provence with some water to create a color wash and lightly brushed that on.
• I distressed the edges by wiping a damp cloth along the edges to remove some of the paint.
• Once everything was dry, I applied clear wax followed by dark wax, which was then wiped off to create an antiqued effect. 

First coat...

Color wash...

Lightly distressed edges...

Antiquing with dark wax...

Of course, these were just the doors and drawers. I also had to do the same thing to the rest of the vanity, which was more tedious with all the taping. As you can see, I was too impatient/lazy to even take out our toiletries.

When this all began, I thought I might end up spray painting or even just replacing the hardware. But once I saw the end result from the chalk painting and waxing, our existing hardware color (an antiqued brass) was actually perfect for this new look. Score!

Since then I've also painted the wood panels of our jetted tub using the same process. And we've ordered a new all-white countertop with integral sinks from Home Depot, as well as two brushed gold faucets that should tie everything together nicely. My hope (at the risk of jinxing something) is that we'll have all that replaced within the next month and can officially check this master bathroom makeover off the list! Stay tuned...

Cabinet Makeover: Chalk Paint with Antique Wax

As you may know if you've read some of my recent posts, I'm no stranger to chalk paint. I've painted all our kitchen cabinets, plus a coffee table and a couple other small pieces of furniture with various brands of chalk paint (aka miracle paint). However, up until now I've only used clear wax to protect said pieces. 

This past weekend, however, that all changed. *cue dramatic music* On a whim, I decided to paint a small cabinet in our dining room which holds all our kitchen towels and such. Several years ago I had actually re-stained the cabinet a dark espresso brown. But since then we've installed new flooring (also very dark brown), so this little corner was feeling pretty heavy and monotone. And to be honest, I was feeling antsy and in need of a smallish, weekend DIY project to feel productive.

For those of you that need immediate gratification (trust me, I get it), I'm just going to show a "before & after" right now. Of course, hopefully you'll still read the rest of this post to see the whole process and more pictures of the final result!

Initially I thought of painting the cabinet Annie Sloan Graphite to match our lower kitchen cabinets. But that just seemed too matchy-matchy, plus we just have a lot of gray shades happening in our house already. No, it needed to be a color with a bit more punch — yet still tie in to our other decor. Digging through my stash of chalk paint, I pulled out a bottle called Teal Lagoon, which seemed like a solid choice given we have some other teal accents. 

New Year, New [Old] Table: A Shabby Chic Chalk Paint Makeover

On a whim this weekend, I decided to tackle another chalk paint project, albeit a small one. That's the great thing about chalk paint -- once you make up your mind on what you want to do, you can just get right to it (as long as you have the paint and brushes, of course). No prep work required, other than maybe a little cleaning of whatever surface you want to paint! 

For those of you out there who like immediate gratification, this Before & After is just for you. Keep reading on for all the details!

So the subject of this latest transformation is a little end table we've had forever (I'm pretty sure it was a hand-me-down from my sister). In fact, it already underwent a basic black makeover several years ago. But the gloss black just wasn't doing it for me anymore, especially since most of our furniture is now matte and distressed. 

Dining Table Chalk Paint Transformation: Part II

Did you catch my last blog post about painting our dining table? If not, go check that out now. I'll just wait right here. 
...........................................

K. Now that we're all caught up, it's time to share the full reveal of the table transformation, including our new chairs!

While I had been fairly confident about the look of the table (two-tone; distressed legs), the chair selection was a different story. We weren't trying to find something to match the table, but rather just "go" with it. I'm all about the mix-and-match approach these days. But it was bit overwhelming to sift through all the options and make a decision on style, material and color.

At first we were thinking of some metal chairs like these, or these, but Luke wanted something with a higher back and a more formal look. The next path we explored was looking at fabric chairs along these lines. I was almost sold on this style, but then decided I wanted something with more of an open back rather than a solid one. It just seemed like it would make our small dining space feel bigger somehow, but maybe I'm weird about things like that. 

Dining Table Chalk Paint Transformation: Part I

We've had our dining room table ever since we moved into our house, which has been about 9 years now. It's nothing too special really, but a solid piece of furniture nonetheless. The finish is black with a bit of subtle distressing, and it has a hidden butterfly leaf allowing it to expand to 54x54" (although we usually keep it to the smaller 36x54"). 

The table is also counter-height (36"), which worked out really well back when we had a wall separating our dining and living room as seen above. We had initially cut out this window opening in the wall in order to connect the two spaces a bit more (and let's be honest, in order to be able to watch TV while we ate). Anyway, the counter-height table allowed us to easily see through the window into the living room and have conversations with anyone else sitting in there.

Bathroom Vanity Chalk Paint Makeover: Part I

I am hereby naming our main floor renovation "The Snowball Project." What began as replacing floors turned into removing walls turned into painting trim turned into re-doing the kitchen turned into replacing light fixtures (not necessarily in that order)... Well, you get the point. 

The reason this renovation snowballed to include our hall bathroom is that the bathroom tile needed to be removed in order to install the new luxury vinyl plank floor. And that meant taking out the vanity and toilet. And that meant it was a prime opportunity to give the entire bathroom a makeover (except for painting, which I had done a few years ago and still really like the wall color). 

Still with me? Good.

Here's a look at our original builder grade vanity. 

Farmhouse Kitchen Sink Update (Part I)

It's been awhile since I posted last about our kitchen, so I figured an update is long overdue. With that said, my piecemeal blogging efforts lately are pretty representative of how this whole renovation process is going!

While we did get the butcher block countertops installed on one side of our kitchen, the counters for the other side have been on hold until we get the new farmhouse sink in.  And that was on hold until we got a new base cabinet built to hold it. 

Let me rewind, as this tends to get confusing quickly. Here's a look at our old setup with the standard stainless steel sink (say that five times fast!) and the higher countertop. 

So we pretty much torn out the entire thing, with the plan of creating a single-level breakfast bar that extends out beyond the sink toward our open living space. The framework for the new base cabinet was also re-oriented at a different angle in order to line up better with our two new pendant fixtures.