Meet Chalk Paint

So as many of those in the DIY world know- chalk paint is now THE thing. It creates an adorable matte finish, applies without priming, and distresses beautifully. It also costs $30 and up for a quart. Similar to chalk paint is milk paint. Milk paint does basically the exact same thing except it comes in powder form that you then mix with water yourself. The downside to milk paint is that it can be hard to find. With both you are somewhat limited on colors unless you're really comfortable mixing, shading, and tinting the paint yourself. That is not something I'm comfortable with so I did more research. After lots of web browsing, I figured out my own chalk paint solution. I mix plaster of paris with regular paint, voila!

Here's the table at the start. It was an old sewing machine table that had been retro-fitted with an empty cabinet instead. In my home it will be used to hold my fish tank. It's the perfect size for my 10-gallon tank and the cabinet lets me hold all my fish supplies neatly out of sight. I found this table at an antique store in southeast Missouri for about $30.

The details on the table coordinate well with my existing furniture

I chose a teal-blue shade that matches my sofas. The table is sitting across the room from them so it creates a nice balance of color in my living room. For the paint mix, I did a 1/3:2/3 ratio of plaster of paris to paint combo. I filled my cup about 1/3 full with the plaster powder then mixed in water with a fork until I had a smooth but thick liquid. Then I added about twice that amount of paint and stirred again to make sure there were no lumps. The paint goes on very thick and covers nicely with one coat. Since I was working in the hot sun, it also dried very fast.


I purchased a quart of Valspar from Lowe's for about $15. Since I know I'll use the color again, I wasn't worried about spending the money. Ideally I would be using paint I already had on hand so my only cost would be the $6 on plaster.

The next step was adding another color so that it wasn't just the dark wood showing on the distressed parts. I grabbed the sample pot of paint from the kitchen remodel (a pale yellow) and brushed it on the spots I would be sanding. I didn't bother mixing this with the plaster since very little would be seen in the end.

After another coat of the blue paint/plaster mixture, I was ready for sanding. I did very light sanding since my style doesn't lean towards heavy distressing. I simply roughed up the edges and prominent features of the piece. The idea was to highlight and bring attention to the pretty lines and details on the table.

To add an aged look, I rubbed some wood stain on the edges and in corners. This was the scariest part for me but I practiced on the back until I was comfortable with amounts and types of strokes.

Next I repeated the whole process with an end table I had on hand. The end table isn't at noticable in my living room since the color blends into my sofa. This is really what I wanted though because the table it very small next to my couch. Instead of a dark blob in the corner, it is simply an invisible vessal for holding a lamp and some puzzles. Mission accomplished!

The two finished products!