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Two Paint Jobs Later

The Heart of Life: Two Paint Jobs Later

Saturday, November 9, 2013

Two Paint Jobs Later

dark blue and goldI mentioned BCE (before Ching era) that I was in the process of painting a dresser.  I did finish it BCE, but I never got around to taking a picture of the finished product until last week.  It started out looking very 90’s southwest, which was cool for the 90’s child (my husband) but it was time for a facelift.  It’s in our bedroom, so I had to find a color that jived with the blue-ish gray bedspread and the beige walls.  I found the picture to the right on Pinterest and decided I wanted a dark blue with gold-colored handles.  My husband was down for the dark blue, but quickly struck down the gold handles.  All our doorknobs are silver-colored and he didn’t like the idea of mixing metals.  He is surprisingly opinionated on things like this.  I protested that mixing metals is ok now according to certain décor bloggers, but he’s not convinced.  For now the knobs are left as is (white) and it actually works, but I’m considering spray painting them silver (or gold—shhhhh) sometime in the future.  Knobs are surprisingly expensive, and I’m trying to keep costs down.

The tricky thing about this dresser was that the solid-colored drawers and the body were done with a glossy paint, so I knew I couldn’t just layer on another coat of paint.  Priming was an option, but the primer I have on hand says to sand glossy surfaces before applying.  Sanding that whole puppy down did not appeal to my pregnant self, so I decided to try out a DIY chalk paint (not to be confused with chalkboard paint, although it’s kind of similar).  Chalk paint has some major sticking power, so sanding and primer are unnecessary. 

If I remember right, I did 1 part plaster of Paris (a big tub I got from Michaels for about $3 with a 40% off coupon) with enough water to make it a thickish paste and 3 parts paint.  The paint was a $3 Valspar sample from Lowe’s.  I used to think you could only pick from the samples they already had mixed, but it turns out they’ll mix any color you desire.  I prefer Valspar because their samples are a little bigger for the same price.  I rolled the chalk paint on with a little foam roller (a few coats) then topped it with some wax to give it some sheen and protection.  I like how it turned out.

Before                                  After 

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A couple weeks ago I decided to also paint the end table in Ching’s room.  Before, Ching’s room was looking pretty… sterile.  Almost everything was gray or white.  It needed some color.  So I primed and painted this end table (with another Valspar sample).  It looks more green in person, by the way.  It’s nothing fancy, but it turned out cute.  I’m toying with the idea of painting the knob white.  The knob is wood and glued on, so I just painted it like the rest for the sake of simplicity.

Before                                  After

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2 Comments:

At November 10, 2013 at 4:52 PM , Blogger Dani said...

Both the dresser and the table turned out so cute! Smart idea with the chalk paint. I hate sanding, even if it is just roughing up the finish a little. I think bronze or gold knobs on the dresser would be perfect with the navy. Mixing and matching finishes is really fashionable right now. Kelly is surprisingly opinionated about design things too; sometimes I have ideas that he is really skeptical about, but once he sees the finished product he likes it. Now he just trusts me, so maybe you could try the same thing with Kevin and just do it and chances are he'll like it. And if he doesn't then you can tell him he can change it and we'll see if it ever happens.

 
At November 10, 2013 at 10:56 PM , Blogger Georgia said...

I love both of your painting projects, Lindsey! Nice work! Great color choices!

 

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