Making a creamy chalk paint wash - Media stand makeover Part 3

In part three of this media stand makeover you’ll see how I made a chalk paint wash (and covered my entire lounge with chalk paint!). If you’ve just arrived here and are a beginner painter, I suggest you go back and read part one first which deals with prepping furniture for painting.

We left off in the last post with the media stand having had one coat of chalk paint in duck egg blue. It was patchy and you could still see the primer in places but that didn’t matter since it was going to have a chalk paint wash in old white over the top.

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Making a chalk paint wash

To make a chalk paint wash, all you need is a small amount of chalk paint (a spoonful or two will do to start with) and about a cup of water. Mix the paint and water really well and that’s your chalk paint wash!

TIP: Save any last bits of paint from the tin and mix it with some water. Store it in a jar with a tight lid and you have a ready made chalk paint wash for your next project.

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Painting with a chalk paint wash

Chalk paint wash is obviously very runny so you have to be careful not to load up you brush with it. Wipe your brush over the lip of the painting tray to make sure most of the wash comes off. It’s better to layer the paint effect gently than to douse the furniture with the chalk paint wash all at once.

In this case, I didn’t water the paint down enough and ended up with a more solid colour white than I actually wanted. I wanted more of the duck egg to show through really. Normally I would just take some of my 120 grade sandpaper and lightly go over it but because I have a frozen shoulder at the moment it makes it really hard for me to sand using just one hand. Instead, I decided to use my little Bosch Multi-Sander to sand back the paint and because it was Winter and because I have a frozen shoulder and because I was feeling lazy, I decided to sand back the chalk paint wash in situ (i.e. in my lounge) – BIG mistake! The only reason I did this inside was because I thought the attachment on my Bosch sander would catch the dust from the paint. I had never actually done this kind of thing with the sander before like I said, I usually do it by hand. Sometimes the sander takes off too much but I found some 180 grade sandpaper which was really fine and I just sanded over the chalk paint wash lightly at first to see if that would work. I thought, “well, if it doesn’t then I’ll just have to paint over it again or do another wash for it but I’m going to have a go, so we’ll see how it turns out”.

Covering my home with chalk paint wash!

Of course though, paint dust is much finer than sanding dust and it didn’t stay in the bucket as it was meant to! I ended up taking this outside after all I don’t know what I was thinking trying to sand white chalk paint in my lounge but it didn’t work and there was white dust everywhere!

Sometimes it doesn’t work out as planned!

The boys ended up taking this outside for me and I was able to sand it properly. It turned out really smooth to the touch. It looked a bit patchy but I really liked the effect at first. Then, the more I looked at it, the more I was sure it didn’t really fit in with the furniture which was already in the room. It was a little too rustic looking, you know?

More Chalk Paint Wash!

So then, it was back to the chalk paint wash – I know, more work again what was the point in all that? Well that’s the thing with furniture painting. Sometimes it doesn’t work out as planned or how you imagine it in your head. The great thing is, you can change it at any time, either by adding or taking away some paint. In this case, I made another chalk paint wash but much thinner this time and built up the colour gently until I felt it was enough. I could only work on this project on the weekends so the media stand had enough time to dry out completely before starting the next step, stencilling.

I’d already bought a stencil that I wanted to put on the side. I hadn’t decided if I was going to do both sides because when it’s in place, you will only ever see one side, the other side would be against a wall. On the other hand, should I ever want to sell the piece, it would make sense to do both sides. Since I wanted as less work as possible and especially since Christmas was only a few weeks away I decided to paint just one side of the media stand. I think I might do the other side at a later time when my shoulder is better and I can move my arm.

Choosing a stencil

Anyone who knows me knows that I love decorating my home with natural elements, things that I pick up on my walks with Brilli like seed heads from Alliums, Thistles, Queen Annes Lace etc., and you’ll see pics of these all over my Instagram. It’s bit of a joke that my Alliums make it into almost every shot. But, that said I really really love this style with grasses and seed heads.

I wanted to do something a little bit different with the side of the cupboard and after a bit of a search, I found this lovely shop online called Stencil Kingdom. You can buy almost every type of stencil in this shop and I found one that was perfect for me and ordered it right away. The shop owner Julie, sent me the gorgeous stencil and I think it’s absolutely amazing. This stencil is huge and I’m just going to be using a small part of it on the media stand.

Showing a picture of how the stencil will look - it has gasses and seedheads swaying in the wind

How the stencil will look – Grasses & Seedheads swaying in the wind

The stencil comes with a picture so you can see how it looks when it’s painted. I’ve already bought a small tin of dark paint to use for stencilling. I’m going to leave it here for now though. The stencil will have to wait until next week otherwise this post will be never ending! If you missed parts one and two of this series, I’ve linked to them both below.