Annie Sloan Chalk Paint!

I first heard the name Annie Sloan from one of my favorite blogs, My Sweet Savannah. In fact I just realized this moment that I will have to write an entire blog just on her page soon. So Annie Sloan Chalk Paint! Oh the amazing things you can do with this stuff. Since hearing about it, I have researched to the nines and for almost two years I just looked at countless images and video tutorials on it. Here are some inspirational photos that got me going..

So I FINALLY stopped procrastinating and picked up a can each of Annie Sloan Pure White and Paris Grey plus the clear wax (I am definitely going back for the dark wax next). Here is the before picture of the table for my first attempt. This was just a plain black table that suffered a few dings and water marks due to my little rascals attacking it! The picture actually makes it look really nice but trust me the poor thing has had forks jammed in it, crayons drawn all over it and various toys scraped across it!

Next I went to Lowes to grab myself a plastic dropcloth, a really good brush that had an angle, some cloth for the wax and a 220 sandpaper block. Its all really cheap except the brush and everyone should invest in a good paint brush. I cannot begin to tell you the difference it makes in your projects. So my goal here with this table was to first paint the whole table the solid white (probably 2-3 coats) and just the top grey. I would then wax and distress and then wax again.  I am sure most of you are wondering if I needed primer since I am going right from black to white. You could use primer and for this big of a change it might speed things along but let me tell you the most amazing features about Annie Sloan chalk paint... Firstly, you do not need to sand or strip prior to painting and in most cases primer is never needed because it is highly pigmented. This paint is incredible to work with and coats well the first time around. Most people who are using this paint are looking to keep any imperfections and dings they have in order to bring out that distressed look when sanding or using the dark wax. Oh and one more thing....You can paint until your hearts content without having to worry about strong fumes because it has extremely low VOC's!.

Ok so I began painting from the bottom up. I knew it would probably need two coats. I could see the black peeking through right from the start and liked it. When I finished the top the bottom was almost completely dry (This paint dries in about 15 minutes). I stepped back and the table was talking to me (just kidding) But something was telling me to bring the black out in this table. So I quickly put a coat of clear wax on, let it dry and began sanding the bottom legs.

    After some distressing of the bottom

Pretty awesome right?  I kept going and I debated to just let the black peek out on the legs and base only but I was torn. I figured I could go back and paint the top just solid white with no black....or go ahead and put solid grey over the white.

I doubt myself all the time so I wondered...Am I the only fool who likes this? Does it look like just a table with primer slapped on? I imagined my Mom coming over and saying "Oh honey, you are painting a table? When are you finishing it? UGH FAIL! So I just waited a couple days to figure out what I was going to do until yesterday! I purchase new chairs for this table and it changed everything. I will be posting the picture tomorrow.