i must confess, one of the reasons i was attracted to trying Annie Sloan's Chalk Paint was purely because it works on most surfaces and requires zippo preparation, (according to the nitty gritty). so armed with one pot of 'old white' and a can of clear wax i set to on our tres large old english church pew. now our church pew has been around a block or two before finding me nearly 2 years back on Black Friday. actually it found me before Black Friday however i was a little canny and went back on Black Friday thinking to myself antique dealers surely are happy to bargain with you even more so, on Black Friday and much to my delight, i was tres right!
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| church pew 'before' |
now our church pew at some point had been either left out in the rain or worst still, been in a church with a leaky roof, i fear the latter probably to be true. i left it as-is until recently when a willing victim needed to be found within Mossy Shed for the purposes of trying out the Chalk Paint. and so i went on my merry way thinking it most likely 2 coats maybe required as it was a light white on top an oak wood. after the first coat i must admit i was a little fretful although i was not letting Mr Doubter in on it. after the 2nd coat i started to see promise but alas, still that oak was looking limed. a 3rd coat it had to be, by now of course i was at the point of give up or go on to till the end. i told myself despite heavy arms and aching bod, there was no giving up in this here shed, this here week
after the 3rd coat i stepped back and still that darn old back rest on the pew just kept on soaking it up and shouting 'limed' back at me. i looked into my dwindling pot of paint and surmised, i could if i was tres caution and careful, eek out enough for a 4th coat along the back of the pew. i might add, at this point, the back side of the pew only had 2 coats as i was fearful my little can of Chalk Paint just wasn't going to see me through.
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| 4 coats of chalk paint and 1 coat of wax later... |
after all those layers it was time to add the wax and then buff the wax. i was on my knees by then, literally and figuratively. oh why oh why did i think the fact of 'no prep' would make this an easy peasy quick paint job. wax on, then rubbed off i stood back to survey the final product of my pew. had i just created the most expensive and not to mention labour intensive undercoat of all time i asked myself. i pondered and then i went off and pottled.
after some pondering and pottling i decided, the pew and its many coats of Chalk Paint was a keeper for now, however if you were to ask me would i use this paint again, truth be told, i doubt it muchly. do not get me wrong, the finish and the look of the pew is pretty darn peachy... is it what i was looking to end up with? perhaps not. will i make it work? yes i will. would i go back to my faithful paint next time? without a doubt
