Paint By Numbers

I recently mentioned in this post  that I'm ready to paint the living room and dining room. I also mentioned the other day that our house has been infected by the cleaning bug. Apparently, it's gotten to my husband as well, because he primed the walls in the dining room yesterday.

A local hardware store has their interior paint buy one, get one free this week for a decent brand of paint. It's not Behr (my usual brand and personal favorite*), but it's a national brand and should do the trick. Who can pass up two gallons of paint for about $25 when you're itching to paint? Not this gal! So for about $25 I should be able to paint the living room and dining room. Well, my husband should be able to paint. I'm just the cheering section and the coffee/food supplier.

My husband had to prime the walls in the dining room because my walls were a brick/terracotta color and we're going much, much lighter. You have to understand; when we bought our house, we had been living in apartments for a long time. Apartments with white walls. For years. Eleven years. I may have mentioned that I was used to my mom painting on a whim, so there was always color on the walls of our house growing up. I was ready for some color, and I wasn't exactly subtle about it. My husband, God love him, went along with every crazy color I chose. I have a tan living room (for the time being). I had a brick/terracotta dining room, had an emerald green room that was my daughter's room, and had a magenta bathroom. The only rooms that haven't been changed at least once are the living room and dining room. Well, the front hallway and computer room haven't been painted either, so maybe I'll pick up an extra gallon of the living room color so we can do those areas, too.

I have a dining room set that really isn't my style. I'm more of an arts and crafts kinda person, and the set I have is more mid-century modern. Through the years, I've looked for a set that's more suited to my style, but the major obstacles are that this set fits perfectly in my small dining room, and holds my stuff. When I find a china cabinet that has as much storage as mine, it's much larger, and won't fit where I need it to fit. My china cabinet is only 36” wide, but it holds my service for 12, plus! When I find a sideboard or buffet, it's too tall to go where I need it to go. What's that? Why did I get this set in the first place? Well...

My friend's mother was having a moving sale/estate sale because she was moving out of state. I went over to help her during the sale. I'd always loved her china, which she was selling. I wanted the china, but I had no place to put the china. She gave me an insane deal on the whole dining room set, plus the china. I figured I'd take it all “until I found a new set”. That was about 10 years ago. After living with this furniture for so long, I've finally had enough. I'm going to paint the set. My husband nearly hyperventilated and had a coronary when I told him. Remember, you can't paint wood. I'm hearing a Monty Python song with the words changed to: “every wood is sacred...”.

I've been on Pinterest a lot, plus the general web and nearly everything I've read about painting furniture says that you should use chalked paint. Not chalkboard paint, which I originally thought they meant, but chalked paint. Supposedly, chalked paint allows you to paint directly onto clean, varnished surfaces with no other prep. No sanding, no priming, just clean the piece and paint it. So I priced chalked paint.

:::cough:::

:::gasp:::

The least expensive chalked paint I found was $16.98 for 30 ounces! That's not even a quart! I'm painting a buffet/sideboard, a china cabinet, a table and 6 chairs. Um, no, not for $17 for 30 ounces I'm not. I'd probably need 3 or 4 cans. Then, you have to apply a wax afterward, and I didn't even price that. You remember that I've previously mentioned my frugality, so obviously, I'm going back to the store that has the BOGO paint and getting a gallon. My friend wants to paint, too, so we're splitting the cost of the $25. I found numerous recipes for making your own chalked paint, so of course, that's what I'm going to do. Basically, you mix plaster of paris in some water, then add it to paint. You mix it up, and voila! Your chalked paint for less than $20 a gallon!

I actually started this post yesterday, but I didn't get to finish it. Since I wrote last, the dining room is painted, and so is the front hallway. The walls of the living room are spackled and ready to go. My kids are beyond excited for all the changes. I even bought fabric (on sale, plus 20% off!) to cover the seats of the dining room chairs. I have to admit, I'm quite anxious to see it all come together!!

*I was not asked to endorse Behr paint, nor was I compensated in any way to mention the name.