Sunday, June 26, 2011

Dry Bar, Part One

I have spent the past few months researching paint refinishing. I finally came across the answer to all questions: Annie Sloan's CHALK PAINT. Annie Sloan is an artist and author who resides in Oxford, England. She has been painting and refinishing furniture for over 40 years. Annie created Chalk Paint because she felt a void in the market--she wanted a paint that could cover a wide variety of surfaces, be easy to clean, need little before prep and that came in many vibrant hues. It almost sounds too good to be true: a paint that can cover floors, walls, indoors, outdoors, stone, wood, metal, plastic, formica...a paint that required NO PRIMING or SANDING...and comes in 24 gorgeous shades. Look no further folks: CHALK PAINT is born.

Of course I was still nervous. It all seemed so easy...but I knew if something could go wrong it would...or would it?

On Friday afternoon, Kern and I set out to make a masterpiece. I had a light oak dry bar in my living room that didn't really match the rest of the furniture so I decided it was time to give it a new life. City painting has it's extra challenges--for one thing--space. We decided the best place to set up shop would on Kern's patio since it is hidden from the street.

We moved the dry bar from my house, loaded it in to Kern's truck
and transported it 5 blocks.

Next step was removing all the hardware
and being happy that we didn't have to sand!
I chose "Old White"
We painted two coats on Friday night (in between a trip to We the Pizza)
It dries quickly.
It is recommended that you lightly sand between coats


We decided to paint the inside too!
Above and beyond


After the first two coats, I began lightly distressing with sandpaper.
The paint is easy to work with and is not a struggle to make it look "old"
I wanted an old "farmhouse-y" look

This is what it looked like after phase 1. Phase II involves waxing--which makes all the difference! Stay tuned!

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