Are you new to furniture painting or are you a budding DIY-er? Buying all the supplies needed to transform a drab piece of furniture into a fab showpiece can add up really quick! How many projects have you seen and would love to try only to be detoured by the actual cost to complete these “budget-friendly” rehabs? In this post, I’m focusing on the cost of paint for your projects, they could be repainting candlesticks or a piece of furniture or your entire kitchen cabinets. Painting is supposed to be affordable, but after you search Pinterest for hours finding just the right paint color for your project, you discover the paint is $30-40 for a small can! Since you don’t paint for a living you have to ask yourself if the cost of the paint is worth the feeling of pride you will have after painting your candlesticks to match your decor. If you do paint for a living you have to make sure that you can afford that can of paint for your piece. Are you going to be able to sell your project for enough money to cover all your expenses(cost of your piece, supplies needed and your time) and still make a profit? I have tried several recipes for making my own “chalk-like” paint and this is the one I use all of the time. I love being able to go to Lowes, Home Depot or any place that sells paint and pick a few of their colors for my pieces. I don’t have to think about what brand of designer chalk paints carry the color that I want, how much is it going to cost or how long before it arrives. I or my clients just go in and pick the color and I get a sample size container of the paint. A couple of easy steps later, I have the exact chalky-like paint for my project for under $4!!
Things you will need:
Your choice of paint(any brand)
Plaster of Paris
Hot hot water
Airtight container for your paint
Mixer or whisk ( I bought a $10 mixer that I only use for this)
I mix 1/3 of a cup of POP(Plaster of Paris) and 1/3 of a cup of hot water out of the tap in my container. I mix it up for a couple of minutes, going from the low setting to high and then back down again. I don’t think you can over mix and it must be mixed well! Your liquid will have the consistency of pancake batter, add more water or POP as needed. When this is all mixed up, gently add your paint and mix for several minutes going from the low to high settings. You might notice that your mixture gets really thick, don’t panic, just keep mixing. After a few minutes, your paint will be like cake batter, this is the consistency I like. At this point, you can add more water to thin your mixture down or more POP to thicken…this is your personal preference. I tried different amounts to get the thickness that I like to paint with and you will want to experiment too! Some people will use a mesh strainer to pour their paint through to get out and chunks or bits of POP. I haven’t had to do that, but I do keep my paint mixed as I am using it. I just put the lid on and shake it periodically, normally in between coats of paint. Now you are ready to paint!! How easy is this? A few dollars and minutes and you have your own paint mixture!
I have used this with many brands of paint, Valspar, Behr, Sherwin Williams and even the Folk Art craft paints. All of these brands mixed up very nicely and had great coverage. I used this with Glidden and it didn’t work very well, was very gloppy and too thick, I couldn’t thin it out at all.
Here is a Facebook video that I did. It’s about 6 minutes, so really quick!
Let me know what you think!
Andreas Uniquely Yours 