Chalk Paint + Distressing Furniture

Are you guys ready to see some serious makeovers?? 

This is only my 2nd time using chalk paint, so I was a little nervous. I just took the plunge and I'm so happy with the results!! My mother in law, Cindy, just moved into a new house and was hoping for a bedroom makeover (umm I am ALL over this). We used all of her existing furniture and totally transformed the look of her room. I enlisted the help of my sisters-in-law who are WAY better at home decor than myself. I couldn't have done it without them.

Cindy really loves that warm teal/blue color that has been floating around.  She already had a black and white bedspread so we decided to use what she already had! This was going to be one cute black/white/teal bedroom.

BEFORES

The furniture was not real wood, but you would never know! The chalk paint didn't mind either :)

Forgot to take a before picture of this one before I started painting. It was a white end table - pretty banged up. Needing some TLC

I couldn't decide if I should paint all of the furniture the same color or if that would be too overwhelming in the room.  My sisters-in-law agreed that it was a bedroom set and with all the black and white we were going to use in the room it wouldn't be too much.

I used Benjamin Moore Vintage Revivals chalk paint called "waterfall". The beauty about Benjamin Moore's chalk paint is that you can mix ANY one of their colors into chalk paint. The sky is the limit!

STEPS

1. Clean the furniture really well before painting

2. No sanding or priming required, just paint!

3. Distress furniture slightly with sandpaper

4. Add protective coat

Paint is drying

Once 2 coats have dried I decided to do a little distressing

I took an 80 grit sandpaper and 220 grit sandpaper to do the distressing. The higher the number on the sandpaper the more fine it is and the lower the number the more rough it is (obviously haha). 80 is a very rough sandpaper so thats what I used for the majority of the distressing.

Fresh paint about to get mangled!!

I try to distress only on areas that would naturally get wear and tear, (mostly on the edges and corners of the furniture). It's a pretty simple process you just kind scratch off the paint and let the natural dark wood show through. You can't go wrong, I promise!

No distressing

Slight distressing

TOP COAT

Rule of thumb for a top coat is that if you're covering a light color paint you want to use a WATER based protective coat because it stays true to the original color, I usually use Minwax Polycrylic. An OIL based protective coat (Polyurethane) gives the furniture a slight yellowing. Even though I used a light color and a polycrylic would have been appropriate I went with what I already had at home which was a polyurethane. I figured it would make the color a little warmer and would compliment the distressing I would be doing by making the color a little more vintage. 

You can see how the polyurethane made the color a little warmer and not quite so knock-your-socks-off blue.

I sprayed the original handles with my FAVORITE spray paint. This stuff is a dream, no drips, and perfectly even coverage

Put the headboard up, now just looking for some perfect pillows <3 And some cute pictures in the frames obvi

I added some cute black flower knobs at Home Hardware to tie in the black and white theme with the nightstand. Technically the nightstand drawers don't use knobs to open them, but come on how cute are they?!