Chalk Paint Console Table

Remember this poor fellow? I picked him up at the very end of my big rummage sale-ing day, in spite of the fact that he was in pretty rough shape.

His previous owners had broken off the drawer slides, and decided to fix it smear the entire drawer and frame with wood glue in hopes that it would stick.  FAIL! They obviously then gave up on him, but I could see a glimmer of potential under all that sticky yellow stuff, and took him home for me for the grand sum of $5.

Because he was made out of laminate (which was peeling in places), instead of “good” wood, I didn’t have any qualms about painting over his shabby exterior.  And I knew immediately what I would use—CHALK PAINT! After all, isn’t EVERYBODY using chalk paint these days? :) Actually, I had heard glowing tales of this wonder paint— goes on over everything, even nasty veneer? And no sanding before-hand? Now you’re talking!

But since $30+ for a quart of paint is sort of out of my budget, I decided to go the home-made route. Instead, I used this recipe that I stole borrowed from the Gardners to Bergers blog:

2 parts paint

(They say to use flat latex paint,

but I used satin exterior latex)

1 part plaster of paris

(which I got with a 40% off coupon at

Joann Fabrics- wahoo!)

Just enough water to make spreadable :)

I found this incredible shade of aqua/seafoam in the mis-tint aisle at Walmart (it’s Glidden’s Satin Exterior Latex), but I’m definitely going to have to find its matching shade, because I’m in LOVE with this color! This was really a jump out on the color limb for me—I tend to play it safe in the color department (if it’s not white, brown, or black, then it must be green! LOL). But I’ve been inspired by all of the turquoise yumminess  floating around blogland & Pinterest lately, and by the new curtains that I recently hung in my dining room:

Don’t worry, I plan on doing a full “dining room reveal” once I get my 99¢ chandelier hung (i.e. when I can talk Mr. Superman into hanging it—somewhere in between doing the body work and paint on his truck, taking his plumbing masters exam, and finishing up the new apartment :-) )

So, anyway, I mixed up my fancy homemade chalk paint (it was a lot clumpier than I expected it to be- the plaster of paris never really dissolved [Edit: next time I'll follow one of my helpful readers' suggestions and mix the plaster with the water first, before adding the paint) and went to town on my poor table—first with a foam roller, then adding another coat with a foam brush while it was still damp. I found that the foam roller seemed to make a blotchy finish, and the foam brush kind of streaked it on—but between the two, they created a nice, thick, even coat of paint. I didn’t even need a second coat! Once I let it dry, I wasn’t too happy with all the lumps of plaster on it, though, so I grabbed hubby’s sander (I love playing with his power tools!) and went to town, ending up with a lovely distressed finish. :)

(And, yes, I did the sanding right here in the dining room, because I couldn’t wait to get it into the house to see what it was going to look like! LOL… Tell me you’ve never done that!)

Then it was on to the hard part—accessorizing and styling my beautiful new table! If you’re anything like me, you change your displays dozens of times before you actually find one that you’re satisfied with (and even then, you feel the urge to switch it around a few more times!) I finally settled on the tabletop arrangement above—though I’m still looking for a larger white platter to replace the white plate (that I wrote a quote on with a dry-erase marker. Remember my aversion to permanence?)

So what do you think? The night after I painted it, I literally laid awake worrying if the color would be too bright for my house... but the more I look at it, the more I'm in LOVE with it! It brings the perfect pop of color into my dining room. Most importantly, every time I look at it, I smile! :)

And for a $5 table, I don't think it turned out half bad! :)

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Blogs I link up to:

• Adventures Of a DIY Mom: Terrific Tuesdays
• Chic on a Shoestring Decorating: Flaunt It Friday
• Decorating Insanity: Furniture Friday
• Embracing Change: Creative Inspirations Link Party
• Five Days, Five Ways: Feature Friday Free-for-All
• Hooking Up w/ House of Hepworths
• It's Overflowing: Overflowing with Creativity Party
• Jam's Corner: Cooking & Craft Link Party
• Mercy Ink Blog: All Things Heart & Home Link-up
• Miss Mustard Seed: Furniture Feature Friday
• My Repurposed Life: Catch As Catch Can
• My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia: Tuesday's Treasures
• Southern Hospitality Blog: Thrifty Treasures
• The Shabby Creek Cottage: Thursday's Temptation
• The Winthrop Chronicles
• Two Sasters: TGIF Party
• Two Yellow Birds Decor: Thursday's Temptation
• Uncommon
• Vintage Gwen: Show & Share