Chalk Paint Tutorial

I’ve done a chalk paint tutorial in the past, but I thought it may be helpful to do a more detailed one. I love to garage sale shop, and I found this mirror at a sale recently for $30. (?!!) It’s hard to tell in the pictures, but it’s HUGE! When painting a mirror, always tape off the mirror itself. If possible shove paper between the frame and mirror. Then, tape the paper in place. Next, prepare your supplies. For this mirror, I used Annie Sloan products: chalk paint (I actually mixed 1:1 Paris Grey and Florence) and wax (clear and dark). The great thing about chalk paint is that there is no sanding or other prep work (well, minus taping off the mirror). Just go for it! Chalk paint dries pretty fast. Once it’s dry (20-30 mins for this project), you can add the wax. Chalk paint dries pretty fast. Once it’s dry (20-30 mins for this project), you can add the wax. I recommend the wax brush. It’s expensive, but it makes the waxing a much easier process. I brush on the wax and then go back through with a lint-free cloth (aka: my husbands old t-shirts) and rub away the extra. For the dark wax, you just repeat the same process as before: brush on the (dark) wax and rub it away. **If you are going to use the dark (antiquing) wax, it is a MUST to use the clear wax first. The clear wax provides a coating between the dark wax and the paint. If you don’t use the clear wax first, your dark wax will stick to everything, and you won’t be able to wipe it away very easily. I like to distress my projects, so I sand. You sand AFTER the wax. I know it’s strange, but that’s what you do. You don’t have to wait for the wax to dry, but it can quickly cake up your sand paper. I went through a lot of sand paper for this project… And I had several helpers: I found that wax residue got stuck in the beautiful details. I used a Q-tip to remove as much of this “residue” as possible. You can add another clear wax layer after sanding if you want, but I find that I can just rub over the entire project and spread out the wax I added before. Also, if you want a more buffed project, wait 24 hours and use your lint-free cloth to buff the entire project. It will give it a nice sheen. Good luck!

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