Chalk Paint
(the stupid easy way to throw color at something)
also wabi sabi
First I should mention that I work in an arts and crafts store, a dangerous thing for any artist or crafty person (OMG, look at that!!! I could...). Mostly I commit artlike substances, and write... but craft paint has weaseled its way into my life along with tule and some other random things.
At some point I noticed the existence of this thing called chalk paint.
THIS IS NOT CHALKBOARD PAINT.
Technically, you can use it to make chalkboards, but usually you buy the black stuff labelled chalkboard paint for that... or the clear chalkboard paint you can throw on any surface including a wall to make your room look like school.
At some point I noticed the existence of this thing called chalk paint.
THIS IS NOT CHALKBOARD PAINT.
Technically, you can use it to make chalkboards, but usually you buy the black stuff labelled chalkboard paint for that... or the clear chalkboard paint you can throw on any surface including a wall to make your room look like school.
Folk Art "Cascade" and sea glass
This is chalk paint.
It is named for the "chalky" ... matte... very very NOT shiny... finish it has.
My two favorite craft paints are Americana and Folk Art. Both have rich color, lots of pigment, and flow off your brush nicely. You don't need 6349187236 coats like you might with some other brands.
There are about 3640172364 tutorials online somewhere for doing complicated things with your chalk paint. Things like layers and waxes and distressing and dragging your prized furniture behind a Jeep until it looks the way you want and...
...never mind.
There is also this (by now probably last week's brainfart) thing called Shabby Chic which I pay as much attention to as Martha whatzerface (that is to say minus zero to the two hundredth power).
Never mind all that.
Let's say your living room is 26386402364 shades of brown and the 756023 colors between white and cream... which mine was, because I inherited it from my parents. I like brown in certain places; on humans, horses and other living creatures, in mud, in gardens, at the bottom of the bay, in the woods. My living room looked like autumn and I hate autumn.
Ugh.
I really want a beach house in shades of whites and turquoise and oceanic colors and it needs to look like a cross between Finding Dory and Moana. (I did that in my bathroom). But I am not repainting the world right now so...
It is named for the "chalky" ... matte... very very NOT shiny... finish it has.
My two favorite craft paints are Americana and Folk Art. Both have rich color, lots of pigment, and flow off your brush nicely. You don't need 6349187236 coats like you might with some other brands.
There are about 3640172364 tutorials online somewhere for doing complicated things with your chalk paint. Things like layers and waxes and distressing and dragging your prized furniture behind a Jeep until it looks the way you want and...
...never mind.
There is also this (by now probably last week's brainfart) thing called Shabby Chic which I pay as much attention to as Martha whatzerface (that is to say minus zero to the two hundredth power).
Never mind all that.
Let's say your living room is 26386402364 shades of brown and the 756023 colors between white and cream... which mine was, because I inherited it from my parents. I like brown in certain places; on humans, horses and other living creatures, in mud, in gardens, at the bottom of the bay, in the woods. My living room looked like autumn and I hate autumn.
Ugh.
I really want a beach house in shades of whites and turquoise and oceanic colors and it needs to look like a cross between Finding Dory and Moana. (I did that in my bathroom). But I am not repainting the world right now so...
I began throwing blue at it.
A blue comforter over the ghastly (but comfy) orange chair, some blue bits in the faerie garden, a lavalava with sea turtles that I already had, a lighthouse flag meant for your Scottish castle's front door that I got stupid cheap at AC Moore (both hung on driftwood I found), some tule on a vine wreath... you get the idea.
There were a lot of big brown items like desks, and smaller ones like baskets that needed blueing.
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
Turns out the easiest thing to do is literally throw blue at it.
If you want that nice pristine shiny look, you will need normal craft paint or latex house paint or something. And a lot of dropcloths, and brushes and rollers and things and stuffs.
Chalk paint lends itself to quick, easy, rough, rustic. Wabi sabi.
The simplest thing is to drybrush it onto a surface.
You may want to practice on a piece of paper or cardboard or extra wood first. If you do totally screw it up, relax, it's acrylic... it will last longer than the piece of wood you just painted and archaeologists will dig up the paint flecks a thousand years from now...
...but you can paint over it.
...over and over.
You can also paint it solid and smooth, like any normal paint. It's more forgiving, since it is fervently NOT shiny, it tends to hide goobers more.
You can also paint a different color over it, drybrushed or with wax between layers. If you do the wax thing, the basic idea is paint color 1, dry, rub wax candle over it, paint color 2, scrape and distress.
As to how well it wears, it will depend on what surface you put it on and how you prepared that. And what kind of wear the surface is likely to get: a tabletop? Desk top? Or the side of a cabinet. You can just keep some extra paint for touch ups, or you can put a variety of finishes over it, like the aforementioned waxes, or acrylic clear coats.
I skipped all that.
I wanted some blue accents.
Now.
I drybrushed the chalk paint on, it dried quickly (turn on some fans and open some windows anyway) adding color to a boring environment with no hassle. I didn't even use drop cloths; drybrushing tends to be not messy.
You may prefer the finished or shiny look as one blogger I read does. If so, go forth and use other paints, seek tutorials and get the look you want, it's your stuff and art is about you expressing your taste.
If you like the rustic or distressed look, the old, the vintage, and see beauty in transience and imperfection, chalk paint may be the way to go.
In Japanese aesthetics, there is a concept called wabi-sabi.
Wiki has this to say about that...Wabi-sabi (侘寂?) is a concept in traditional Japanese aesthetics constituting a world view centered on the acceptance of transience and imperfection. The aesthetic is sometimes described as one of beauty that is "imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete."[2] It is a concept derived from the Buddhist teaching of the three marks of existence (三法印 sanbōin?), specifically impermanence (無常 mujō?), suffering (苦 ku?) and emptiness or absence of self-nature (空 kū?).
Characteristics of the wabi-sabi aesthetic include asymmetry, roughness, simplicity, economy, austerity, modesty, intimacy, and appreciation of the ingenuous integrity of natural objects and processes.
Chalk paint gives you assymetry, roughness, simplicity, economy, modesty... you don't need massive artistic skill to recycle something old and outworn into something beautiful...
A blue comforter over the ghastly (but comfy) orange chair, some blue bits in the faerie garden, a lavalava with sea turtles that I already had, a lighthouse flag meant for your Scottish castle's front door that I got stupid cheap at AC Moore (both hung on driftwood I found), some tule on a vine wreath... you get the idea.
There were a lot of big brown items like desks, and smaller ones like baskets that needed blueing.
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
Turns out the easiest thing to do is literally throw blue at it.
If you want that nice pristine shiny look, you will need normal craft paint or latex house paint or something. And a lot of dropcloths, and brushes and rollers and things and stuffs.
Chalk paint lends itself to quick, easy, rough, rustic. Wabi sabi.
The simplest thing is to drybrush it onto a surface.
- get a bristlybrush, something from the hardware store, something cheap, something old and a bit worn works too
- get a palette; any piece of plastic (a lid from your margerine tub etc), or waterproof paper plate
- glob a couple tablespoons of paint on the palette
- moosh brush into paint, smash brush around until there is not so much paint on it (dry...brush)
- slap over surface
- you can also use sponges, paper towels, you fingers (latex gloves help here), moss, twigs a clump of hay...
You may want to practice on a piece of paper or cardboard or extra wood first. If you do totally screw it up, relax, it's acrylic... it will last longer than the piece of wood you just painted and archaeologists will dig up the paint flecks a thousand years from now...
...but you can paint over it.
...over and over.
You can also paint it solid and smooth, like any normal paint. It's more forgiving, since it is fervently NOT shiny, it tends to hide goobers more.
You can also paint a different color over it, drybrushed or with wax between layers. If you do the wax thing, the basic idea is paint color 1, dry, rub wax candle over it, paint color 2, scrape and distress.
As to how well it wears, it will depend on what surface you put it on and how you prepared that. And what kind of wear the surface is likely to get: a tabletop? Desk top? Or the side of a cabinet. You can just keep some extra paint for touch ups, or you can put a variety of finishes over it, like the aforementioned waxes, or acrylic clear coats.
I skipped all that.
I wanted some blue accents.
Now.
I drybrushed the chalk paint on, it dried quickly (turn on some fans and open some windows anyway) adding color to a boring environment with no hassle. I didn't even use drop cloths; drybrushing tends to be not messy.
You may prefer the finished or shiny look as one blogger I read does. If so, go forth and use other paints, seek tutorials and get the look you want, it's your stuff and art is about you expressing your taste.
If you like the rustic or distressed look, the old, the vintage, and see beauty in transience and imperfection, chalk paint may be the way to go.
In Japanese aesthetics, there is a concept called wabi-sabi.
Wiki has this to say about that...Wabi-sabi (侘寂?) is a concept in traditional Japanese aesthetics constituting a world view centered on the acceptance of transience and imperfection. The aesthetic is sometimes described as one of beauty that is "imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete."[2] It is a concept derived from the Buddhist teaching of the three marks of existence (三法印 sanbōin?), specifically impermanence (無常 mujō?), suffering (苦 ku?) and emptiness or absence of self-nature (空 kū?).
Characteristics of the wabi-sabi aesthetic include asymmetry, roughness, simplicity, economy, austerity, modesty, intimacy, and appreciation of the ingenuous integrity of natural objects and processes.
Chalk paint gives you assymetry, roughness, simplicity, economy, modesty... you don't need massive artistic skill to recycle something old and outworn into something beautiful...
