What to do when you royally f@ck your Chalk Paint: Decoupage!

Remember the Craigslist changing table? Remember the chalk paint? The problem of over-distressing? Yes? Good. Because my crazy alternat plan involved gluing bunches of little pieces of paper to it and covering it with Polycrylic. Yes, that would be decoupage!

What is decoupage? It's a decorative technique that involves covering something with glue-soaked fabric, paper, etc. and topping it off with a clear finish. There's an official craft store decoupage glue-and-finish in one, but I find watered down Elmer's and Minwax Polycrylic more cost effective. So here's how it works.

1. Prepare your surface. Typically a good cleaning is enough, but since I was going over fresh-ish paint, I wanted to rough things up a bit. I had good help!

2. Find the right images. Anything can work. Pages from old books (I'm just unable to rip up books, so I had Dr. D print pictures on the color laser printer), newspapers, old calendars, that pricey scrap booking paper, thin fabric, your kids' drawings, etc. assemble your papers and cut or tear as desired. Then give them a dip in plain water. Not too long. Five or ten seconds. Enough to make it supple without turning it to mush.

3. Coat or dip your paper in your glue wash. I use one part glue to maybe two parts water, but it needn't be exact. Milky color and texture. I dip small pieces and use a sponge applicator for larger ones. I also keep some straight glue and a tiny paintbrush on hand for tricky bends and corners.

4. Apply to your surface. I often moistened that with glue-water too, then smoothed it on with wet hands or a wet brush. Don't overwork it or the paper could tear, though you will have a few seconds if you need to reposition a piece, etc. A tip here: I find if I need to fit an odd spot it is much easier to cut the paper while dry than when it's wet! And smaller pieces are easier to work around curves than larger ones.

5. Once dry, put coat after coat of Polycrylic over top. I sanded lightly between coats for this, but on other projects I haven't. Same result.

Enjoy!

Rowdy is a bit big for this changing table, but it works! Her coming baby sibling will fit just fine.

Nesting Gone Awry: DIY Chalk Paint with Diatomaceous Earth

The best thing about Craigslist is finding treasures for cheap. The worst thing: cheap treasures often need a good helping of TLC. Take this incredible changing table, for example.

White, but peeling and scuffed, and at some point in the past touched up with a shade of white not quite the same as the original. The solution? Fresh paint! And since I love the creamy look of chalk paint and hoped to match the other antique furniture in the nursery, my choice was easy. 

Next step, look up recipes online and realize I don't have the slightest idea where to buy calcium carbonate locally, and don't want to wait for shipping, don't like the idea of plaster of Paris dust around the kids, and I just happened to have this in my garage:

Again, easy answer. 50lbs of diatomaceous earth (bought for chicken keeping) would be more than enough (as in waaaaaay more than enough). My recipe: 1/4 Cup DE, 1/2 Cup paint, 2 Tbsp water.

First scoop your DE and add the water. Then whisk until smooth-ish.

Whisk some more after adding the paint. I used a basic Valspar white.

Here it is after the first coat:

You can see how nice and thick it is, though it clearly needs a second coat.

Ah, better. It dried very quickly. Like ten minutes. I then took it inside and distressed with all the typical tools of the trade.

Oh, but do let the paint cure a bit before distressing or you might end up rubbing off the paint in big chunks. Since the white was so very WHITE and stark, I added a bit of patina by making a paint-water wash and applying carefully around the edges. Be warned: chalk paint devours color and it's very easy to over-distress a piece by doing this! Steel wool too tends to leave a gray coloration over the finished product.

One could finish with wax or a coat of varnish of choice: poly, minwax polycrylic (my pick), shellac. See below the drawer post-distressing.

Remember that thing I said about over-distressing? Yes, I did that. Above is just the drawer. I really went to town on it after that. I felt the piece looked more shabby than chic, so much that I didn't even take pictures. After some tears and profanity I decided to go a different route. Decoupage! Fun! That lesson is coming soon.