Entry Updates

I know there's about a million things to update about: vacation, Mother's Day, Father's Day, the last day of school, yard make-overs, guest bath and front room makeovers, etc. But I just don't feel like it. I do feel like showing off what I've been working on today. It started with a mirror I rescued from the trash in the old house. I used this tutorial to paint it with homemade chalkboard paint, but ended up painting the mirror and frame with chalkboard paint. I love how it turned out!
And then the table it was on started looking pretty beat up. Isn't that how it always works out? It's an old record player I bought at a yard sale about 10 years ago for only $20. I really liked working with the chalkboard paint and it got me thinking about using the blog-famous Annie Sloan Chalk Paint. It's all over the DIY blogs as a great option for refinishing furniture that doesn't require any prep work on the piece. But that stuff is $50 a quart! Dude. I figured there had to be a way to make it cheaper on my own. And there is. After digging around on the internets, I came across the perfect homemade chalk paint (different from chalkboard paint).
For chalkBOARD paint, you mix unsanded grout (got mine at the ReStore for $2 for a giant bag, feel free to borrow some) with your paint. For regular chalk paint, you mix 1/2 cup plaster of paris with 1/2 cup hot water. Whisk until smooth and then stir in 1.5c of paint. This made roughly two cups of paint and it only took about 1/2 of it to paint my record player. I read up on tutorials for painting with chalk paint and got to work. I wanted a more handpainted look, so I brushed it on rather than rolling it. I painted two coats, distressed it with sand paper, and finished it off with minwax finishing wax. Chalk paint is chalky of course, so it needs poly, glaze or wax as a protective finish. I have to say I love the look! And the price rocks. I used a coupon at JoAnn's for the Plaster of Paris, so it was only $4 and that was my only cost since I used leftover paint. Check out the results:

Love it! I used burlap over the "speaker" part.

I super-love the mirror. I could have one in every room of my house. Did I mention it was free and the frame is made from plastic?

View from the front door. Yeah...we need to stain/paint the banister...but for now, it rocks!

Now maybe I'll get motivated to post a bit more on the blog-o. I've got a few more projects planned for this week.