Monday, January 14, 2013 by Leslie Paladino
Week before last I was one of the lucky thousands to catch one of the yucky viruses going around. Just around the time I started to feel better poor Gabby got sick with something. Croupy cough, sore throat and a fever since last Thursday. And anytime Gabby has a sore throat she refuses to use her voice and insists on whispering. Of course it doesn’t keep her from talking. She’s just been whispering (seriously!) since Thursday. I think we’re both finally on the mend now though and hopefully she can go back to school tomorrow. We haven’t left the house since last Thursday and are about to go insane if we don’t get out soon!
Since we’ve been cooped up I spent a little (okay a lot) of time repainting some of Gabby’s bedroom furniture. I’ve been planning it for 3 1/2 years but you know how it goes at this stage of life. Most days I’m lucky to just get the laundry done.
I started with Gabby’s mirror to work out my technique on something small and love, love, love how it turned out! Next up are her dresser and bed.
I’ve been reading all about the Annie Sloan Chalk Paint on my blogs and it sounded perfect but Michael has converted me to an absolute cheap skate and Annie Sloan isn’t cheap. So I did a little research on making my own chalk paint and decided it would be worth trying.
Chalk paint is a nice alternative because you don’t have to sand and prime your furniture before you paint it. If I had to drag all that furniture out to the garage to sand it then it would absolutely never get done. I used 3 parts paint and 1 part Plaster of Paris for my recipe. You mix the Plaster of Paris with a little water before you add in the paint so there aren’t any lumps. I had a little trouble with that though. It was nice and smooth before I added the paint but as soon as I mixed the paint in hard rock like lumps appeared. Not sure what happened there but I strained those out and proceeded on with my painting.
The paint has a pretty rough finish so if you’re looking for something super smooth this might not be for you. I added some antiquing to the edge with a little premixed glaze then went over everything with a furniture wax that seals it and gives it a little sheen. It was fun to work with something new and I seriously love how it turned out. Can’t wait to start on the next pieces! Hopefully I’ll finish everything in 2013.
And just to make sure Peter doesn’t feel left out I’ll include a funny little story about him from last night. He was literally running around getting ready for his bath because why walk when you can run. He proceeded to run to go to the bathroom but put on the brakes a little too late and ended up falling into the toilet arm first. Poor little guy but at least it was right before bath time so he wasn’t contaminated for long. I love that funny little man.
The finish before I started.
And after. Hard to capture the difference in a picture but trust me…it’s better!