Making Chalk Paint & A Jewelry Display

I have wanted to try Annie Sloan Chalkpaint soo badly to paint some furniture I have and top coat it with some of the clear soft wax.  Here in Ontario, Canada, it's proving quite difficult to get my hands on the stuff!  The shipping costs to order it online isn't worth it on top of the high price of the product itself.  Gah.

I don't know what the formulation of their chalk paint is, nor the wax, but I have made chalkboard paint before and furniture wax is available at the hardware store.  After some research, I have seen that many people have made their own knock off version which is pretty similar to the chalkboard paint.  Most using non-sanded tile grout, some using plaster of paris.  Well..... the test was underway.

Before diving into doing the furniture, I decided to try on a smaller board, which was to become part of a new jewelry display for my bedroom made up of drawer fronts, old drawer pulls and door knobs.  I found this drawer front at Ikea for a buck in the AS-IS section.  The rest I ended up 'making' to look like drawer fronts from scraps I had at home.

Now Annie Sloan paint is supposed to give great coverage with no sanding or priming needed.  I decided to keep with this theory and paint it straight over the black finish on the wood.  I mixed up my chalk paint (1 cup latex paint to 1 Tbsp non-sanded grout) and got underway.  This was one coat.  Not bad... but I did give it a second and that gave great coverage.

When making your own chalk paint, make it in smaller batches.  It will start to thicken up because of the grout.  You may also want to mix the grout with a wee bit of water first before adding it into the paint.  I didn't do this at first and found it hard to make the paint 'lump free'.

After the paint was dry, which didn't take long, I gave it a go over with some sandpaper to rough up some spots and expose the original black paint underneath.

Next, I got out my wax.  I couldn't find anything that said 'clear' wax in the hardware store, but I did find MinWax 'Natural' in a rub on paste.

It has a very subtle ... well... 'natural' colour to it.  Hence the name lol.

With a soft, lint free rag, I started applying the wax, making sure to cover the entire piece.  After about 15 minutes, I went back and buffed the surface with another lint free rag.  It buffed to a wonderful lustre.

Overall, I think it turned out well.  I continued painting, distressing and waxing the rest of my boards.

I arranged them in a grouping they way they were to hang on the wall, then placed all the drawer pulls and door knobs where I wanted them to go.  Drilled some holes, attached the hardware... all that was left was to put them up!

I'm pretty pleased with the outcome.  I like that I could add a couple more boards to the grouping in the future too!  If you are curious, I used these to hang them up.

If anyone knows where a crafty fun lovin' girl such as myself could get her hands on some Annie Sloan products, even samples, I would LOVE to do an actual side by side comparison.  Just email me!  But for now, my DIY version is what I've got and I'm running with it... straight to my furniture!