Chalk paints; some user friendly tips

[phinaeus]

Our daughter wanted to refurbish the grandson's bedroom and join the crowd using chalk paints - because they're so easy. So my house slave has just spent the last 2 months using Annie Sloan paints of various sorts to complete the task. He has a few pointers that you might be interested in. Yes they're good paints - they need to be at that price but..... Most of the work was covering polyurethaned pine but a couple of items had previously been glossed:-

1. If you don't want a retro distressed finish they are hard work and no easier than normal painting.
   
2. For a perfect finish use 3 coats - the first to mask; the second as a thick coat to cover; a third watered down to cover the brush marks. These paints do not spread like normal gloss or acrylic paints
   

3.Water does not mix in easily - needs a lot of elbow grease

1. He found initial washing down with sugar soap, using a scourer or wet and dry, gave a better first coat coverage
   
2. Definitely rub down if using a metallic finish, and undercoat compatible with the colour being used
   
3. For doors / side panels if you can lie flat its much easier to get a smoother finish, but all layers will have some granularity after painting because of the chalk
   
4. If using masking tape to protect adjacent areas there's a catch 22. If possible you can remove asap after final coat; but this will produce chalky granules from prior coats on overlap onto tape. He used an old shaving brush to dust off. If you leave until paint is dry it can cause cracking onto main painted surface that then needs touching up......
   
5. Let the paint thoroughly dry for at least 24 hours before waxing AND use a very soft cloth taking care on edges - even with 3 coats you can rub the paint off.
   
6. His final comment:Look on line at how to make your own. It will be cheaper and you will have a larger range of colour options.
   

The room and furniture look grand but someone needs a holiday.
Hope that will help

[DoreenLethal]

Just add plaster of paris or dry grout to make your own chalk paint.

[phinaeus]

Yes that's what he said. But just get the proportions right.

[PennyDropt]

Very useful Phineas.
Are you saying that metal needs an undercoat because chalk paint is supposed to be paintable onto metal??

[phinaeus]

Yes, you get better results. The metallic paints appeared thinner and didn't coat/cover as well - both the silver and gold. So rather than use three + coats my husband did a primer coat of white or cream and was able to get a reasonable finish with three coats where the underlying polyurethaned pine did not show through. We suspect it will depend on the underlying surface texture and colour you are covering over. Again it is all trial and error - though with these paints errors can be expensive

[phinaeus]

Whoops - just read your message again. - misread gist first time ... must be Alzheimers setting in. I was discussing experience over polyurethane on darkish pine. We didn't have any metal surfaces to coat. Acrylic paints are OK to coat metal normally and as these paints have an acrylic base usually they should be alright, but the house slave said be careful if there is any rust and stick to specialised paints for that. He has had 50+ years experience painting, so I tend to believe him.

[PennyDropt]

I didn't realize they did metallic paints, hence my confused post!

[HalfStar]

Thanks for the tips. Going to be doing some experimenting tomorrow so great to get some pointers.