Anyone painted their kitchen units with chalk paint?

[Wishfulmakeupping]

Moving house soon-not enough money left over to get a new kitchen but the units are ok just wooden so I'm thinking of painting them with chalk paint- anyone here done it would you share pictures of before and after or just after?
Also did you use Annie Sloan or another brand- and how much paint did you get through?
Thanks

Not kitchen units but my friend did all her living room furniture and it looked amazing.

She used Annie Sloan cream paint and I think she only used one tin plus the wax.

Watching... Have exactly the same issue. Will be hoping to do a big revamp in 5 years or so, really just looking for something I can live with in the meantime!!

I did! It's a big job (mines still not 100% finished! but the majority is done) I will attempt to attach a picture but not sure how it will go as not done it before. I used Annie Sloan paint and got through 2 tins. I didn't use the wax though just a clear satin varnish as wanted it to be a little more hard wearing. It really brightens up our kitchen and I replaced the knobs too. Although I still want a new kitchen when funds will allow!
It won't let me post a before sorry!

Ohhhh think that looks really good :) I've got quite a few units to do including two tall cupboards is it going to be an utter pain in the arse?! I do think it would look so much better though

It only works if you varnish it as willhazboz has done.
Otherwise the chalk absorbs grease and looks grubby.
If you are varnishing why not use eggshell paint in the first place as it's tougher ?

I actually agree with pierpressure. I bought the chalk paint with the intention of waxing but did another small piece of furniture and realised the wax wasn't going to be durable enough. The plus side of the chalk paint was that I didn't have to sand or anything. Not sure if you would need to with eggshell. But think eggshell would be an easier paint to work with. I found the chalk paint dried too fast so had a tendency to go a bit bitty and I had to sand.

That picture shows about 1/3 of my kitchen. I did it in the evenings when the baby had gone to bed. My mum and auntie helped and then they and my dad did spend a day while I was at a wedding finishing it for me as a surprise. It probably took 3 people 8 evenings of 3 hours work and then 3 people 1 full day to finish off. Have to say in the evenings we didn't exactly work our socks off. There was wine involved.

Before I painted it it was a pine country kitchen. The cabinets are 20 yrs old. It was pretty dull.

Your kitchen is gorgeous, will - I wonder if that would work for mine?

I used dulux hard wearing wood paint and it looks amazing!

Used homemade chalk paint with Annie Sloan wax. Worked great

I did it and used a very matt varnish (yacht varnish), but it got very grubby, very quickly. Even with the varnish, a small rub on the units meant I was taking the paint off.

In the end, I repainted and used an ordinary varnish and that's been much better, but I don't find it too shiny either

This is a bit of my kitchen

I love yours fitzbilly! Also very jealous of the lack of grooves etc. That was the worse bit on ours.

Thank you - it is so much better just not quite what I would have. Wish we could afford to replace the work tops but they are a nightmare due to the glass cabinet so comes up too much.

Varnish seems like it's definitely the best idea then! I was scrubbing mine with a scourer last week and no paint came off!

I think the joy of chalk paint is that you can use it on all surfaces with minimum prep. If your units are wood, aren't you better off with normal hardwearing paint?

I painted my melamine fake wood kitchen units with a specialist primer and then normal kitchen paint about 5 years ago and they've stood up pretty well. I've also used Annie Sloan paint on four kitchen chairs that I rescued from a local restaurant for a fiver - they were very thick treacly dark varnish and it was so easy to just paint chalk paint on top. The first time I used wax on top and they looked very grubby within a year. So I repainted - again with chalk paint, straight on top of the old lot - and then put matt varnish over the top. Two years on, they're still looking good.

Annie Sloan now sells a matt varnish which is quite good value compared to the Rustoleum one I used - about £24 for a big tin.

I've used Annie Sloan for loads of projects but it just didn't work on my kitchen cupboards! I ended up with a patchy mess - I tried both wax and varnish (different doors) with an awful result.

So... I tried Autentico Eggshell, which is also chalk paint so no prep required, but it behaves like standard eggshell and is absolutely brilliant. It's a really, really tough finish and I'm extremely pleased as it was looking as though I'd need new cupboard doors after the previous disasters (also tried Rustoleum - that didn't work either!).

Autentico don't seem to advertise much which is odd, because it's fab stuff.

Not a chance I would be doing it. Chalk paint is nowhere near durable enough for something so high traffic. I'd just use Eggshell or Satinwood on them if you don't want them Gloss. Please don't use Yacht varnish in your home though, it is incredibly flammable and will render your home insurance void in case of a fire. When I used to babysit, the kid's dad was a fireman and he told me that when they do the investigation for the insurance claim, Yacht varnish actually shows up as accelerant.