When I (Annie Sloan Chalk) Paint My Masterpiece

Ever looked at a piece of furniture and think, 
that would look fantastic……..painted.  Neither 
did I until Tiffany saw this Giant MDF Armoire 
at a thrift store. I thought it was ugly. It was 
seriously functional, but ugly just the same. But 
after a bit of arguing and some difficult 
logistics problems, it was home. 

Yup. This is it. I just had no real vision. How 
was I going to sand all those nooks and 
crannies? I wasn't. No sanding of any kind. I 
didn't even remove the hardware. That was 
getting painted too. I'd done a lot of reading about Annie Sloan Chalk 
Paint. I have also read all the recipes for do it yourself chalk paint. We'll talk about those on another post. 

For this project I chose Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Olive. I wiped the furniture down with a damp, clean cloth and made sure it was completely dry. I used some Spackle to fill in a couple of small scratches. When that was dry I sanded it smooth. Okay, yeah I sanded a little. 

Then I got to work. I used a Purdy Nylox Glide 2 in. Angled Sash Brush and started aplying paint to the front doors. It went on really smooth and dried in 15 or 20 minuets. After the doors I worked on the flat portions, like the sides, with a Purdy 2 in. Nylox Sprig Paint Brush. The entire armoire took 2 coats. It was fabulous to work with. I had ton's of paint left. It didn't have any real smell and it washed off my hands without too much scrubbing. 

I read about using wax to cure the paint and I went with good ol' Johnson's floor polish. I took a 2 inch brush and cut the bristles down to about 1 1/2 in length. I applied the wax in a circular motion and wiped off excess with a cloth. I let it dry 24 hours and then gave it a second coat. I really wanted my hard work to last and with 6 kids I knew it would have to stand up to all of them. 

It's my favorite piece. I truly love it. So thank you Tiffany for having a vision!