UPDATE: Since I wrote this post I have been trying other homemade chalk paint recipes, please visit this link to see my conclusions and which one I liked the most.
I had been reading for some time about the wonders of the chalk paint or blackboard paint made popular by decorator Annie Sloan. This type of paint adheres to practically any surface without the need for a prior primer, it allows for different types of finishes and the brushes are cleaned with water.
The recipe for homemade chalk paint it can be easily found on the net, so I decided to prepare it myself. As I always tell you, it is good to have boards or pieces of wood to experiment with painting techniques Because, although we see tutorials and at first it seems easy, sometimes things don’t work out the first time, as was my case.
In the homemade recipes that I found about chalk paint It was indicated that the materials to be used were: paint, plaster or stucco and water. Although in some approximate amounts were indicated, in others it was said that it was done more or less by eye until a paint with a sauce-like texture was obtained.
I’m not very good at eyeballing things and my first chalk paint was a real disaster, I used acrylic enamel and plaster because it’s thinner than plaster, but I used too much and it was very pasty. The second test was not much better, this time I used white carpenter’s glue instead of paint but I put too much water and the chalk paint came out so runny (I didn’t take into account that the glue is already watery) that it ended up in the sink drain .
Since there are no two without three, I tried again and this time, finally, it was the definitive one. I tell you all the detailed steps I followed and the materials (and quantities!!!) I used to get my homemade chalk paint.
The materials
To make homemade chalk paint I took as a base the recipe for homemade plastic paint, namely: water as a base to mix the ingredients, pigment (color), white carpenter’s glue (binder), calcium sulfate (plaster) and materials to add texture (sand, sawdust, etc.).
With that recipe in mind, I made my homemade chalk paint with the following ingredients:
– 100 ml of white carpenter’s glue (binder)
– 2 tablespoons of plaster (calcium sulfate)
– 2 tablespoons of warm water (base)
– Pigment (acrylic paint, a ball the size of a chickpea). You can also use powdered eye shadow or pigments for oil and paint.
– Brush, brush, paletina, roller…. I used a brush because I wanted the brushstrokes to be noticed.
With these materials you will obtain a very economical chalk paint bearing in mind that plaster costs about 2 euros/kg, carpenter’s glue about 2 or 3 euros/half a kg and also a similar price for both powdered pigments and acrylic paint.
Also keep in mind that It is a type of painting that spreads a lotwith the mixture of the recipe I had for 4 coats of paint and I still had to give a coat to a wooden box.
The elaboration
The elaboration of the homemade chalk paint is the next:
– In a plastic glass or glass jar, mix the two tablespoons of plaster with one of warm water until the plaster dissolves completely, I used a plastic spoon to mix everything.
– Add to this mixture the 100 ml of carpenter’s glue.
– When we have achieved a homogeneous mixture, we add the pigment. I add it at the end because that way we can better rectify the tone we want to give it. For the pigment I mixed a small ball the size of a chickpea of blue acrylic paint and another red, although in this case the final amount will depend on the color mixture we want to achieve.
In the end the mixture was as follows:
As a pigment, you can also use eye shadow, but it must be enough for the color to be noticed. We can obtain very beautiful and personal colors by trying different mixtures of pigments and even trying natural colorants..
The application
First of all we must prepare the surface, although at first it is not necessary to sand before applying the chalk paint, I preferred to do it because the board I was going to paint on had printed letters and I tried to reduce them as much as I could.
Once the surface is sanded, we apply the first coat.
The drying time is about an hour, and may even be less. With the first chalk paint I did, several hours passed until it dried completely, then I figured that something hadn’t been done right.
Keep in mind that once the paint dries, the color fades quite a bit since carpenter’s glue is colorless when it has driedso after the first coat it can happen that the wood hardly looks stained, that’s why it is necessary to give it as many coats as necessary to achieve the desired final color.
It is also convenient to sand the surface with a fine pore sandpaper block before giving a new coat of paint.since this is how we get veins and textures out of the paint that enhance the final result.
After the third coat of paint I had already left a very nice color but I wanted to do a test consisting of sprinkle purple eyeshadow on the surface and mix it with a new coat of paint. In this way, in addition to the streaks of light paint that appear after sanding, you can also see other darker ones that enrich the final finish much more.
At the beginning of this entry you can see how the purple blackboard with my homemade chalk paint, with a texture and a color that I have loved.
For a glossier finish, several coats of natural wax can be applied but it will lose its slate effect (the chalk will slip on the surface)although it is ideal if we want paint a piece of furniture with homemade chalk paintas it will protect the final finish and give it a very nice shine.
Do you dare to make your own? homemade chalk paint? Sometimes not everything works out the first time, or the second time, but I assure you that it has been worth trying until I get a satisfactory result, especially considering that I have a list of furniture to recover to which I am going to apply my homemade chalk paint recipe
