Chalk Paint Night Stand {Tutorial}

My mom got me this cutie little end table for $15 for my birthday. Funny story: we got it at a garage sale from her cousin that we didn’t even know was having a garage sale! We were driving around hitting up a few sales and just happened upon hers.

It’s so 1950’s or maybe 60’s. Not really sure but I looove it!

I fell in love with the legs and the curves and the drawer pull. It was actually painted a beautiful mint green color. The color just didn’t go with my guest bedroom. I knew that’s where it would end up being used.

And now the story changes my friends. This is a story of a redo gone bad and then good again. And when I say bad, I mean baaaaaadddddd.

I wanted to try the technique of using Vaseline over paint. Basically you paint the color you want to show through and then put Vaseline over it. That way when you start sanding your top coat the paint peels right off. 

This is what the dresser looked like after painting the color I wanted to show through and adding Vaseline.

I decided that I wanted to try my hand at chalk paint for the first time. I’ve seen many recipes out there. I went with unsanded grout with polmer because I had it already.

You take about 1 cup of paint and add 1 tbs of grout. Let me tell you, this stuff get’s thick. I’m pretty sure I added more paint to dilute it down a little.

This was after one coat of chalk paint. It covered really well except for the brown parts. The mint color was completely covered.

And here she is after 2 coats. Looking good… for now. It’s about to go downhill at lightning speed.

This is after distressing. It looks like this little end table has some sort of disease. Maybe chicken pox? Measles? I hated it. I think I just went for to much distressing. (That’s an understatement!) So back to square one I went.

After painting it approximately 15 more times, I ended up with this little beauty.

Now she’s got the perfect amount of distressing. And no disease either.

And here is her resting place. The guest bedroom that I may decide to finish one day.

Now my guests actually have a place to set stuff. I would love it find a vintage alarm clock.

So, the moral of the story is, less is more when it comes to distressing. Always.

Thanks for dropping by :)

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