Another painting story... My living room coffee table.

Years ago, we purchased our living room furniture from a local furniture store.  At the time, we were thinking practical.  We still had 3 kids at home and a cat and a dog.  So leather was our fabric of choice.  If I were shopping now, I would totally go with the white couches, but that will have to wait until either my current couches die, or my black haired (shedding) dog dies.  Which ever comes first.  But I digress... Along with the leather sofas, we purchased a coffee table.  Again, being practical, we got one with lots of drawers for storage.  It had a dark walnut stain.  At the time, we had light carpet in the house.  And our living room was pretty large and open to the kitchen.  This was years before we moved into our current old home. 

After moving into this home, which had hard wood floors.  All the leather, dark wood in the coffee table, wood floors plus it being a smaller room, it all just looked dark.  Again, I wanted to lighten and brighten it up.  So I decided to try my hand at mixing my own chalk paint.  I found a recipe on line. 

 

Seemed simple enough.  It was 4 TBSP Plaster of Paris, 2 TBSP water, and 1 cup of latex paint of your choice.  You mix the Plaster of Paris and water together, then add the paint.  I used Valspar Buff White for my project. 

 

 

First, after removing all the hardware from the coffee table, I simply painted 2 coats of the paint, letting it dry for a couple hours between coats.  After the second coat dried, I sanded the edges to lightly distress it. 

 

 

After distressing,  I generously applied the Minwax Finishing Wax.  I applied it with a soft rag in a circular motion, working it into the paint.  I let it dry about 30 minutes, then I went back with a clean rag and buffed it till it created a satin shine. 

 

I put new hardware on it, and you wouldn't even know it was the same coffee table!  It lightened the space, like I was hoping.

 

After trying this treatment, I painted my kitchen cabinets using Annie Sloan Chalk Paint.  While the home made version is less expensive, works well, and has been durable, I will say the Annie Sloan paint goes on smoother, covers better, and the wax is easier to work with.