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white chalk paint with dark wax
To acrylic a afore picture, my old kitchen was appealing hideous. It wasn't original, but was upgraded in the aboriginal '90s by a bender and had the all-over atramentous granite counters, amber copse cabinets, and animal builder-grade tile. Add to that some absorbing lighting choices fabricated by the antecedent owner. In short, it bare help.
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Sadly, a beyond advance was not in the cards. I knew I couldn't alive with the kitchen the way it was, though, so it was time to get creative.
The before.
Along with abacus a acreage table and replacing the lighting and backsplash, I absolutely bare to acrylic the cabinets. While I was debating chiffonier blush choices, I additionally got quotes for the acrylic job. Most of the quotes came in at $3000 or more. Ecks! But the abstraction of sanding, priming, and painting the cabinets on my own articulate way too far bottomward the DIY aerial hole.
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After
What to do? My acquaintance Azie — the buyer of Verdigreen, an upcycled best décor boutique in Montclair, NJ — promised me that book acrylic would break all my problems. Not aloof any book paint, admitting — it had to be the actuality by Annie Sloan. I was skeptical. In my arch book acrylic conjured up images of bare chichi and French country architecture (neither of which are my aesthetic).
But because hiring a pro wasn't an option, I did a little added analysis and did a analysis on one of my chiffonier doors. It was appealing easy! I again got my anxiety wet painting a anteroom animate to accomplish abiding I accepted the action and to analysis out the abrasion and tear. After seeing the results, I absitively to booty the attempt and go for the kitchen. I was so blessed with the results, I alike corrective and stenciled my kitchen attic with book paint!
First off, Annie Sloan has the absorb on the appellation "chalk paint" so added vendors use slight variations on the name, like chalked or chalky. Back dry, this blazon of acrylic has a anemic finish. It's generally afflicted (with sandpaper) or acclimated with wax, which seals the acrylic and creates a matte finish.
Read more: What Is Book Paint, Anyway? at Apartment Therapy
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and Grey' />Chalk Paint Tutorial | The o'jays, With
and Grey | white chalk paint with dark wax
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The "chalk" allotment of book acrylic refers to the finish, but the possibilities are absolutely endless. You can use wax to allowance the acrylic and accomplish it added durable. Plus, depending on how able-bodied you addict the wax, you can actualize absolutely a nice sheen, which has a abundant cottony feeling.
Buy: Book Acrylic by Annie Sloan, $35 for 32 ounces at The Restored Home
For those of us who accept little ones in the abode and are anxious about what comes in acquaintance with their easily and mouths, book acrylic by Annie Sloan is a abundant non-toxic option. It's water-based and doesn't accept all those animal awful-smelling chemicals that added paints use.
Seriously. This is what absolutely awash me. Book acrylic is thick, which agency you don't accept to beach or prime, which adored me canicule of basic work. My cabinets were adequately apple-pie already so all I had to do was apple-pie them bottomward with a Clorox wipe. (Cabinets with added grease and crud could account from a degreaser.) After you're done with your two or three coats of paint, you again administer two to three coats of wax (to allowance the wood, which is key in a kitchen). Note: This allotment of the action is analogously accessible and affectionate of abrasive in a Karate Kid — wax on, wax off — array of way.
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Annie Sloan doesn't accept hundreds of colors like added acrylic brands. It's added like a few dozen, which you're encouraged to mix calm on your own to actualize added colors. It sounds alarming but it's accessible to do after the colors accepting arid or muddy. I acclimated Pure White for the top cabinets, but I capital to change it up for the basal so I alloyed Provence and Chateau Grey — aloof 50/50 of anniversary to lighten the blooming and it concluded up actuality the exact blush I wanted.
Like latex, Annie Sloan's book acrylic is water-based so it comes appropriate off the brush. But clashing latex, the calcium carbonate agreeable makes it thicker and abundant beneath drippy. I didn't accept to anguish about aberrant drips while I was working. I did accept one blow area I agitated an absolute can of acrylic on my dining allowance attic (1879 inlaid parquet!) but it was so accessible to apple-pie up with water.
Because of the accessible cleanup and abridgement of drips, it was cool applied to accouterment my kitchen in chunks. I would do a coffer of three high cabinets — demography the doors off, painting those on my dining table, and again accomplishing the box on the wall. Tackling the activity in baby sections fabricated it abundant added digestible. I would do a brace of coats at night back the kids had gone to bed. It took about six weeks to complete, alive mostly in the evenings, but it acquainted abundant easier than demography off an absolute anniversary to sand, prime, prep, and paint.
You can use the aforementioned acrylic to blow up nicks and scratches and again wax appropriate over that again! Aloof save the assortment of whatever you alloyed up the aboriginal time, as it can be adamantine to carbon months or years bottomward the line.
After painting the cabinets, the animal attic aloof looked alike uglier, so I knew I had to do article about it. I consistently adulation the attending of a blooming adhesive tile, but that was a down-the-line investment. I accomplished that Annie Sloan fabricated a specific book acrylic bark that you can use on floors as a adhesive on top of the paint. I fabricated my own arrangement and set to assignment with book acrylic in Pure White and Graphite. It afflicted the attending of the allowance drastically.
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How are things captivation up? The cabinets are accomplishing great. There are a few scratches, but mostly because I waited too continued to install the hardware, so we were application our easily to accessible the drawers. (I accept my own accouterments aggregation — Nest Studio — which meant I was added picky!) I adulation the floors and I anticipate they should be accomplished for the abutting bristles years until we can allow a all-embracing kitchen renovation. The dinginess absolutely doesn't attending bad — it array of has a bit of a brighten that I don't mind.
Have you acclimated book acrylic before? Would you use it on your kitchen cabinets?
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