My $3.00 Chalk Paint Project

So I was reading this great article by Sherry at No Minimalist Here last week about making your own chalk paint.  I thought it would be fun to give it a try, so I looked for a victim in my garage.  This cute little writing desk has been asking me for a makeover for a while and I've been ignoring her request.  Well, last week Elaine was on vacation and I was having a little bit of a hard time moving furniture around on my own, so I had to stick with items that were light weight.  So she finally got some attention.

I guess the reason I had been ignoring it for so long was that I couldn't exactly figure out what to do with it.  I originally had planned to keep it two-tone, but instead it kind of evolved into multi-tone.

I used the Plaster of Paris Method, which was $6.00 at Michael's and $3.00 with my 50% off coupon.  I took some celery green paint (left over from Elaine's living room) and some true blue acrylic and mixed it to make a greenish/blue color.

The paint gets thicker the more plaster of paris that you use.  My first layer was a yellow mixed in a little thicker.  This way I avoided priming.  Then I used another layer mixed a little thinner with the green-blue that I made.  The third layer was dark stain.  I then went back through and highlighted some of the colors.

I love the paper on the inside of the drawers

All in all I'm pretty sold on this plaster of paris paint idea, especially on these shabby/ paris apartment chic projects.

What kinds of paint techniques do you love?

xo,

mONICa